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el lobo loco
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previous
monkey-biz
y2k monkey
~ '01 ~
july ~ june
may ~
apr ~
mar
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for current monkey biz go HERE
8.31
a timely reminder
to any fellow SF Bay Areans reading us today:
San Francisco Mime Troupe, Delores Park,
Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday
catch this show if you can, inspired political theatre,
it's genuinely funny, w/fine music, a great cast & it's FREE!
oh, & another thing,
(we easily distracted)
close call
oh oh oh oh, otra cosa mas:
very late summer Ralph
holy boy! Izzat dumbmonkey done yet?:
Journeys of the Mind
ahhhh, our apologies, we not done with you yet.
from the fishwrap,
this "more than just a book review",
and Dimitry Speaks
~ ~ ~
august '01 comes to an end &
seems as though summer only began a few weeks ago,
the cliche being "time flies when you're having fun"
although we are not at all sure that what we've had lately
could be described as fun, ennyway....
thanks to Mark, for the palliative he prescribed re Oscar P.
thanks to Queen Bee, for her support, moral & otherwise,
for a pal who is so far away, she's there as much as possible
when yourstruly is blue & in some kinda funk, particularly
now when the faithful poochster's health worries us so...
thanks to the fair Elise, for her recent link to us, it always a
pleasant surprise to see new visitors sent this way,
thanks, sincerely, to the many new friends & aquaintences made
over the last few months, many of them blogging comrades, for
making each day a little finer, providing us with thoughtful material,
some laughs, and for just sharing your lives with us...
oh & by the way, there are a few of you out there who've
been awfully patient with us in re to some pkgs we've promised
to mail your way, we intend to put them all in the post tomorrow,
one last thing, two minutes of pure pleasure
have a marvelous weekend, whatever you be up to...
8.30
damndamndamndamndumbmonkey...
should have bought tickets months ago...
Sold Out: Oscar Peterson at Yoshi's
Chron review of O. Peterson, Yoshi's
there are only so many chances you get in a lifetime,
for any number of opportunities that may come your way,
don't procrastinate like yourstruly often does,
you'll live with fewer regrets that way...
~ ~ ~
world's toughest movie quiz?
from the Village Voice, test your acumen here
8.29
hello & goodnite...
a couple of nice things happened to yourstruly today,
and before we call it a night, we wanted to share
one of them, this story, from onfocus
~ ~ ~
occasionally,
when one really, really wants to point
our dedicated dozen readers in a specific direction,
and that direction not quite yet on the "map", so to speak,
we getz slightly irritated, s'a minor thing, nevertheless there
is an excellent piece by Molly Ivins in the fishwrap today,
but it's a syndicated column, and both locations where
yourstruly would normally (normal- does that apply to a
dumbmonkey???- hardly ever!) locate it, well damn,
it isn't there. The subject of the piece is Sen. J. Helms,
& Molly, goddess bless her ol' Tejana heart, has some choice
words of farewell. You can keep an eye on Molly's work here,
as well as her usual location at the FWST.
***** LATE BREAKING LINKAGE *****
big Thanks to Craig of Book Notes,
where we found the Ivins Item linked
s'funny, in the Chron, title of item is:
Jesse Helms- "a man of principle"
~ ~ ~
El Paso? EL PASO???
hey, this odd duck of an item initially came to our
attention during evening news last night, and we had to laugh
as we spent our young monkey-hood growing up in EPT,
and, well, let's just say we are not as charitable as the
Farmers' Almanac in their opinion of the weather there...
y la ultima cosa: today's Daily Bleed
~ ~ ~
hey, five out of five ain't bad...
whatchoo talkin'bout willis?
hie theyself over to the left column, begin w/APOD,
check
out todays poem (an especially lovely one),
yesterday's quote was actually more inspiring,
& J.C. & Ms. Garchick
are in bien forme,
we looking forward to a good day & wish you the same...
ohhh, & jessferdahalibut, check out t. pierce
hokeysmokes bullwinkle!
well, when we asking ya to visit tony p, we were intending
to send you to what we found there yesterday, but we
discovered something else altogether today, so maybe you
want to try going here for a start, then peruse
tony's place at your leisure, you'll not be disappointed...
~ ~ ~
mo' quality linky goodness...
& goodness be the operative word here;
yours truly mentioned a couple of weeks ago that
our local cable outfit has offered up the Food Network,
and we watched a bit last night, in particular a show
called America's Test Kitchen (real brainpower at work there),
and they made this Yummy Looking Cake, which we may be
attempting ourselves this weekend (it is a holiday, right?)
if so, we let you know how it all came out...
8.28
so terribly, horribly, painfully ridiculous...
again, the administration takes a stand
& why is this man smiling?
pic from the post;
write to the perpetrators
~ ~ ~
ackkkh-pfffhht... back to our old trixx...
we must note the passing of the lovely Jane Greer
take a chance on a great noir classic & rent "Out of the Past"
~ ~ ~
too much rest and this fine mind turns to mush...
okay katz & kitteez, this "appearance" only temporary, the design team
*** this "look" has been here before, late 11.00 ***
of crakhead johan & his minions are
hard at work on something a little different to present to you hereabouts, also to finally utilize somewhat recently aquired domain name & server space out there that we paying perfectly good US dollars for, ANYWAY----
what da heck is up w/that dumbmonkey fella?
first, in some semblance of explanation, a couple of excerpted items,
the first here from the pages of Hal Rager's
Blivet:
I've quite deliberately been ignoring news sources for several days, whether from TV, radio, newspaper, or web. I guess I am revisiting a if it is important, someone will let me know space. Personally, I find that the muddy water in the mental bucket settles better without so much outside agitation. Besides, I generate sufficient roiling action on my own, I need no assistance to keep my waters turbid thank you very much. I remain of the opinion that constant aggravation and outrage is but one technique that corporate media employs to keep us engaged with their data stream rather than our own lives so that other corporations can suck the life from the captured souls writhing in the pale phosphor's glow.
Of course it is not just the corporate media, nonprofits and other nongovermnetal organizations feed our fears and dreams too. Family and friends often invite us to share their personal, occupational, and relationship dramas as well, though seldom for crass commercial purposes. To be engaged because of love is far more productive and nourishing.
We all gain then.
this second section a portion of note sent to me in empathetic support from
excellent pal, the Queen of the Southland
(who knows who she is & shall remain
a-nonny-mouse here just because we'd prefer to keep it that way):
know what you mean. i do. i think maybe sometimes
there isn't a reason. not one you could put your
finger on. maybe i said this before, but oftentimes,
a certain time of the year that something catastrophic
happened to you years ago will make you depressed
around that time of the year all years...my girlfriend
lost her mom and couldn't figure out why, couple years
later she would get depressed every spring...
maybe you too? or maybe just everything, which you
normally can handle is getting to be a bit too much.
lately, more and more is going wrong with the world,
and for those of us who can see it, it only adds to
our personal loads. So, not only are we dealing with
anger and depression on a personal level, but now, we
must deal with society's problems and injustices on a
global level. I don't think humans need so much
information and global news. we only need enough to
keep us alive in our little corner of the world.
(oh,
and our pals that are far away!)...
one of the tougher things about attempting to avoid the news o'the day
(and isn't it mostly all bad these days ennyway?) is:
1) yourstruly works for a pretty well known daily newspaper
2) yourstruly is/has been sort of a news/info junkie
3) turning into a blogger w/a regular habit hasn't helped
so the attempt to "rest" was simply an attempt to restore some
emotional equilibrium. Some of ya can recall our crashing & burning
last year in nov & dec, and finally able to get back into gear in
feb or so, as far as d'monkey was concerned- our habit had become so
powerful that our evil twin el lobo loco rose out of the wreckage of
dumbmonkey of 2000, sort of allowed us to keep our hand in and make
vicious stabs at the present govt. administration...
this all likely much much more than any of you ever wanted to know, so
we gonna keep it brief, and leave it at this, but if you want to drop me
a note in support, or maybe to say "HEY stop feelin' so sorry for yourowndamnself and get back in the flow", well, send your electronic cards and letters to me and if you want to really help me out of a funk, send me a snailmail address for yourself and we will send you some guaranteed good thing as a token of our appreciation
that you give a damn.
this page be around for a few days, the word from crakhead J & crew is that
the page in the works is "not compatible" (whatever the fugg that means) so
we may just toss it all out the window and keep it simpler than ever...
hugzz & kizzess...
le marquis d'monkey
~ ~ ~
holy buoy! particularly apropos...
later that same morning, yourstruly perusing bloggos favoritos,
(yahhh, he got dat habit bad)
& stops by the mystifyingly prescient wood s lot
8.23
a few older minds want to know, also...
but our questions more challenging than these
~ ~ ~
another reason to be afraid of clowns
Danger Will Robinson, Danger
beware of Smiley the Clown
Official D'monkey Disclaimer:
sexual hi-jinks between consenting adults is entirely their business
le marquis d'monquis the last to say No No, play nice now...
~ ~ ~
oh my, only another week of August remains...
first, this tune to set your toes a'tappin, your bum a'wiggle...
next, from correspondents spread far & wide across the globe:
y a h, r i g h t . . .
from the lovely K. Pike, comrade at the daily fishwrap,
Report: President Bush Has Lowest IQ of All Presidents of Past 50 Years
If late night TV comedy is an indicator, then there has never been as
widespread a perception that a president is not intellectually qualified
for the position he holds as there is with President GW Bush.
In a report published Monday, the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton,
Pennsylvania detailed its findings of a four month study of the
intelligence quotient of President George W. Bush. Since 1973, the
Lovenstein Institute has published its research to the education
community on each new president, which includes the famous "IQ" report
among others.
According to statements in the report, there have been twelve presidents
over the past 50 years, from F. D. Roosevelt to G. W. Bush who were all
rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they alone produced
without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several
other psychological factors which were then scored in the Swanson/Crain
system of intelligence ranking. The study determined the following IQs
of each president as accurate to within five percentage points:
147 .. Franklin D. Roosevelt (D); 132 .. Harry Truman (D);
122 .. Dwight D. Eisenhower (R);
174 .. John F. Kennedy (D);
126 .. Lyndon B. Johnson (D); 155 .. Richard M. Nixon (R);
121 .. Gerald Ford (R); 175 .. James E. Carter (D);
105 .. Ronald Reagan (R);
098 .. George HW Bush (R);
182 .. William J. Clinton (D); 091 .. George W. Bush (R);
or, in IQ order:
182 .. William J. Clinton (D); 175 .. James E. Carter (D);
174 .. John F. Kennedy (D);
155 .. Richard M. Nixon (R);
147 .. Franklin D. Roosevelt (D); 132 .. Harry Truman (D);
126 .. Lyndon B. Johnson (D); 122 .. Dwight D. Eisenhower (R);
121 .. Gerald Ford (R);
105 .. Ronald Reagan (R);
098 .. George HW Bush (R); 091 .. George W. Bush (R);
The six Republican presidents of the past 50 years had an average IQ of
115.5, with President Nixon having the highest IQ, at 155. President G.
W. Bush was rated the lowest of all the Republicans with an IQ of 91.
The six Democrat presidents had IQs with an average of 156, with
President Clinton having the highest IQ, at 182. President Lyndon B.
Johnson was rated the lowest of all the Democrats with an IQ of 126. No
president other than Carter (D) has released his actual IQ, 176.
Among comments made concerning the specific testing of President GW
Bush, his low ratings were due to his apparent difficulty to command the
English language in public statements, his limited use of
vocabulary (6,500 words for Bush versus an average of 11,000 words for
other presidents), his lack of scholarly achievements other than a
basic MBA, and an absence of any body of work which could be studied on
an
intellectual basis. The complete report documents the methods and
procedures used to arrive at these ratings, including depth of sentence
structure and voice stress confidence analysis.
"All the Presidents prior to George W. Bush had a least one book under
their belt, and most had written several white papers during their
education or early careers. Not so with President Bush," Dr. Lovenstein
said. "He has no published works or writings, so in many ways that made
it more difficult to arrive at an assessment. We had to rely more
heavily on transcripts of his unscripted public speaking."
The Lovenstein Institute of Scranton Pennsylvania think tank includes
high caliber historians, psychiatrists, sociologists, scientists in
human behavior, and psychologists. Among their ranks are Dr. Werner R.
Lovenstein, world-renowned sociologist, and Professor Patricia F.
Dilliams, a world-respected psychiatrist. This study was commissioned on
February 13, 2001 and released on July 9, 2001 to subscribing member
universities and organizations within the education community.
hmmmm, well, we haven't opportunity at the moment to more carefully research this
item but if and when we find supporting documentation you can be sure to find it here.
ho ho ho, we weren't paying attention earlier this summer:
check out results from this google search:
Lovenstein Institute of Scranton Pennsylvania
While at this pleasant activity of dissing the resident, we will also pass along an
item we became aware of yesterday, courtesy Stumpy Delko, part of the mad crew at
Environy, so hie thyselves here
and raise in your voice in a HALLELULAH BROTHER!
we not sure how the day's flow will shape itself,
usually pretty busy for us due to weekend deadlines,
so we leave you with a couple of other musical items and
the hope they will brighten your day, kick off your weekend...
here's Sponge doing Plowed;
then, another fine tune from Ry Cooder
and lastly (if only we had more time there'd be more) the Lemonheads,
now, go out and make a joyful noise, have a marvelous weekend...
8.23
hello there...
How To Make Over One Million Votes Disappear
this report from the House Committee on the Judiciary appeared
in an emailed newsletter we rec'd; we're admitting to our
ignorance of its existence up till now, and we know
(goddamit) it is gonna piss us off when we read it,
it ought to piss you off, too. btw, it's a PDF document...
~ ~ ~
geezers (HAH!) sticking together...
whilst perusing bloggos favoritos, amigo estimado Craig
points out that el Tejano Loco hisowndamnself S. Baum
(more familiar to some as the Wizard behind Ethel the Blog)
has returned (oh, who knows for how long? only the Shadow knows...)
hmmmmmm, maybe we be takin' a nice long break from this soon, too...
~ ~ ~
one other thing, briefly, from the little zen calendar
A young monk, respected and loved by everyone in the monastery,
died suddenly. At the funeral the roshi was crying along with
all the other mourners. One of the disciples said to the roshi,
"Master, why are you crying? We thought you understood."
"Yes, yes," said the roshi impatiently, as if interrupted.
"I do, I do. But when else do I get a chance to cry?"
~ ~ ~
today's forecast, light & intermittent activity,
but we do offer up to you this quiz,
& hope that when the NY'er sues us that we can expect
all of you to testify as character witnesses on our behalf..
hmmm, maybe that not such a good idea after all...
~ ~ ~
ahh, our esteemed employer, the glorious fishwrap
makes mention today in article by Mark Simon of
sharks scattered about the city of San Jose,
but am unable to locate said article in an on-line version,
*** Holy Boy!, here's the link to story, w/pics mentioned ***
so we simply send you to the Shark Byte Art site
a few good photos in the paper, & it only costs a quarter...
8.22
our estimate: Mr. Miller is correct...
from the L.A. Times, Mark Crispin Miller on el residente
~ ~ ~
file this under Encouraging the Youth of Today
fellow fishwrap colleauge weighs in with Bronze Rhino
Yessssss, Mr. Killian, give us more...
~ ~ ~
cause for celebration, if you're a foodie...
Alice & Chez Panisse celebrate 30 year Anniversary
more Chez Alice stories from the fishwrap;
(possibly) more than you ever wanted to know re Chez P.
~ ~ ~
quickly now, vite vite!
New Yorker of 8/20 & 27, a fine issue centering on music,
the music biz, musicians & related material...
firstly (& happily available on-line) this by Nick Hornby,
just a little taste of this Mr. Hornby's stylish ways:
...OK? You may well be surprised to learn that the very first person thanked in the liner notes of the CDs containing these gems is the Almighty Himself. He gets thanked on seven of the ten albums, by sixteen different contributing artists. Brian, of Jagged Edge, for instance, declares that without God "we wouldn't be here doing this third album" -- incontrovertible, according to much creationist theory, but a somewaht reductive view of the universe nonetheless. Let's face it, without God the first two albums would have been pretty tricky, too. In a similiar spirit, Michelle, of Destiny's Child, is moved to point out to the Creator,
"There is no one like you!!", which is, on reflection,
one of the tidiest ontological arguments you could wish to hear.
and as for all the other great stuff, like the piece on P.J. Harvey by Hilton Als,
"Gettin' Paid" by Kelefa Sanneh, and... and... well, just buy the damn thing,
you won't regret it, take it on vacation w/ya...
~ ~ ~
slept well, for hours, but still want more...
what if this phenomenon we refer to as weblogging hadn't occured?
well, speaking for ourowndamnself, our life would be less enriched...
we often ask you, dear reader, to stop at one place or another,
usually another weblogger's effort as something they've written has
won our admiration, perhaps it's only a clever turn of phrase,
today, though, we ask you again to hie thyself over to visit
Mark @ wood s lot, because it is always a worthwhile perusal,
but mainly to visit his link to "Getting a Life in a Locked Down Land"
oftentimes, when yourstruly is visiting other webloggers,
we put ourselves in mind of The Joker,
(as played by Jack Nicholson),
gazing admiringly & saying, "Where does he get those wonderful toys?"
8.21
da bastids... da bastids!
after all those super-sized fries & crummy burgers,
now we know why we never won
~ ~ ~
a wee tiny break in the usual d'monkey routine...
oh, well, quite honestly it was one of those mornings where the idea of making this a mental health day was the uppermost thought shortly after waking, just not enough shut-eye last night, and we think we kinda runnin' low
on the overall energy level presently, perhaps tonight we make a point of retiring early and catching as much opportunity for restful slumber as possible. Got pretty damn chilly around chez d'monkey neighborhood yesterday
evening. It was great to leave work at 2:30 and find the day still nicely overcast, but that hawk started blowing in from the west shortly after arriving home and we were shutting windows and closing doors to empty rooms to keep the heat centered in the living room & bedroom (the heat wasn't on, it's just an old, drafty house). We cooked up a nice chicken cacciatore for dinner to share w/pal as we watched Enemy at the Gates on DVD, stayed up too late afterwards and, well, you know, some mornings should be spent lazily in bed, slowly considering if and when one should rise, or, even better, have someone alongside w/enough energy to get up and make yummy lite brekkie w/nice hot cuppa alongside, perhaps at the very least get dressed and go out to bring back some coffee
and freshly baked croissants. Maybe next time, m a y b e . . .
so, ennnyway, a shower helped, then a hot cuppa whilst we dressed, then decided to call into fishwrap central and leave a message that we'd be a bit tardy this morning and decided to take the local express bus into the city instead of the train, feeling that a little change of routine would do us good, and it did. Am a truly fortunate person to have these options available to me in terms of making the journey there & back as it relates to working in San Francisco, one of them being an express bus that stops only a block from chez d'monkey, with the walk from the terminal to 5th & Mission easily accomplished, perhaps 6 blocks. A lovely morning on the way in, sky full of scudding broken cumulus clouds tinted rosyish hues by the rising sun, seldom is the view outside the windows of an AC Transit bus
crossing the bridge towards the city anything less than memorable. Stopped by bakery on the walk to the office and picked up a couple of savories, these delicous muffin-like things with spices & veggies all mixed together w/bit of
cheese melted across the tops, SO good, so savory. It's going to be a nice day after all, boyz & girlz, we wishing you
a very fine Tuesday as well. Ciao!
8.20
ohhhhh, we gonna hear 'bout this one...
perhaps revealing more about ourowndarnself than is prudent,
but we are indebted to Riley Dog for pointing out
this review,
along w/this page of some of our other guilty pleasures (I Am Weasel!)
~ ~ ~
the stuff that permeates the nightmares
of the protagonist of our yet unpublished,
great un-amerikhan novel...
along w/his usual fears when being accosted by tiny-brained hinterlanders,
big-legged women driving pickups, and certain members of the criminal element...
~ ~ ~
oh, & by the way, yes to slow food
the slow food manifesto
from slowfood.com
~ ~ ~
oh oh! licorice lovers beware
~ ~ ~
damn-o-lay... these weekends are getting shorter...
admittedly, off to a later start than expected on Saturday morning, but in Santa Rosa by quarter of ten and after a bit of time at chez frere, Ken and ourowndamnself on the way to Healdsburg, maybe 20 minutes north of S.R. The Healdsburg Guitar Festival was located in Villa Chanticleer and we believe as nice as the facility is, the festival has just about outgrown it, as it was very well attended on Saturday (we contemplated staying overnight and being there for special Sunday brekkie & guitar music but the chores & responsibilities awaiting us in Albany were shouting out loudly to us) and the crowd did make
a leisurely viewing of all the guitars a little challenging & occasionally intimate. The HGF website has a page listing the many luthiers who were present (and we pretty sure more present there than included on the page). Had Ken and myself planned better we might have taken along the digital video cam to capture some of the music, and some shots of the entire facility;
plenty of areas to sit, whether you preferred shade or sun, outside the building; the food set-up was excellent, one could indulge in yummy looking buffet or choice of sandwich, grab a place to sit, relax, & eat while listening to
one performer or another entertain you. It was a beautiful summer day in Northern California and actually got pretty damn warm as the afternoon progressed. Yourstruly made a new friend on the shuttle ride from the parking lot, a young Chinese woman (she was taking every advantage to practice her English-speaking skills) who, as it turns out, was neither a guitarist or luthier, but an importer of any number of things one of which was bone, from a particular region in China, which is used by many luthiers for nuts, saddles and a few other things and she was there to meet up face to face with a few of her clients. Great big abrazo of thanks to Bro K for his patience & determination to get some photos of many of the beauties on display despite the challenges of the big windows, back-lit guitars, crowded aisles and my constant nudging of him to come and see whatever the next thing was that caught our fancy. There are a few pictures up at
el lobo loco, the minis will launch a Very Large jpeg of the item; we apologise in advance for our lack of "professionalism" and poor notetaking as we missed the opportunity to identify the maker of each of the guitars featured in the photos
there, and there are a few other pictures we may include in a later post, but those should suffice for now. You've also the opportunity to visit some of the instrument maker's websites on the luthier page linked above. goshdarnitall, it's monday again, isn't it?
& by the way, at lobo loco, you can open each frame in new window if you want...
8.17
friday follyish, vaguely...
The Boys From Kennebunkport
from the Village Voice
~ ~ ~
a long, tho' largely enjoyable week...
two things for you to enjoy, from the California Guitar Trio
something familiar to most of you, Classical Gas;
and from wayback, an old Ventures tune, Walk, Don't Run;
the Ventures tune from Yamanashi Blues,
the M. Williams tune from Pathways;
California Guitar Trio website;
the Discipline Global Mobile site
~ ~ ~
nothing friday-follyish here today boyz & girlzz
but you can find plenty in a similiar vein
at the 3 Bruces
likely be a leetle buzy here at fishwrap classifieds today...
8.16
the resident encourages kidz to read
we say, Yeah!, start with this book
~ ~ ~
no no no, sorry, not that kind...
woodie anyone?
~ ~ ~
we are stardust, we are golden...
we are an accident
i am the walrus....
no, you're an eggplant!
~ ~ ~
another great reason for a nite in the city
listen to Bad Oscar, The Trylon, et al,
Mobius Operandi @ Somarts Theatre
Mobius Operandi site
www.somarts.org
~ ~ ~
foolish foolish person that we are...
the d'monkey, in an attempt to correct minor typo in previous post
ended up destroying all posts after 8.6-- ALORS!, wha-??? Again????
regular visitors here know we did this once before recently,
and now we very aware of what we did (stupidly) & now it happened
(idiotically) and have only ourowndamnself to blame (self-critically)
One Must Let The "Page Has Been Updated" Prompt
To Appear Before Closing Working Window
yesss, we were more fortunate than last time, had some posts saved
during the cosmetic changeover to our metallic-theme
so we only lost the majority of the 8.6, which, all in all,
let's not kid ourselves okay, it's not like we burned up half
of the Gutenberg Bible or anything, ya know, it just a weblog
and another day in the life, crap occurs and what can ya do
but sail blithely on, savoir-faire & devil may care being your standards...
8.15
a little more on the fuzzy-faced ex-Veep
Gore & the resident at it again in '04?
already I am so depressed...
but hey! Everything Changes, even cosmic laws
~ ~ ~
waal, don't think we have to tell you
what to do to celebrate International Orgasm Day
you can pretend to be a Kiwi if ya need to...
actually, it's ourowndamself that's a wee bit late
but we oughtta (yah!) be celebrating every day, right?
& to correspondent inquiring whether or not yourstruly be Too Tired to celebrate...
well, not bloody likely, show up & we give you a clue...
~ ~ ~
ahhhhh, what we complain' about...
s'a walk in the park...
engaged the grey matter in the slot marked R for routine
and we auto-piloted to the parking lot of bart station,
caught the expected train at 6:15-ish and made our way
into the city listening to CD purchased at last night's show...
to some, the weather would appear wintry, grey, some
would describe leaden skies, the clouds of fog low on
all the horizon, low enough on the East Bay hills that those
living in the high-rent district can peer out over a sea
of cloud-top, all the way to the distant western horizon
without interruption, illumined by the sun rising
over the hills...
~ ~ ~
an ideal weekend? at this moment it would start today.
I'd visit Healdsburg to attend a few days of this affair,
& though word provided last nite re CGT show being sold-out
well, that'd be okay, although we would stay up late for
another opportunity to see them play live...
the rest of the weekend would include a trip to Calistoga
to soak in some hot waters, maybe even get a good massage,
sleep late (!!!), enjoy some excellent meals,
hmmm, maybe we shouldn't have mention any of this...
it may make calling in sick a little more difficult...
~ ~ ~
this in the category of foodie-linkage...
dipping sauces & Vietnamese recipes for the adventurous
~ ~ ~
could be an ugly one this midweek morn...
very ugly... why, you ask, in all your innocence...
yourstruly is one very weary ape-fellah today, up way late last nite
stayed in the city to catch CGT at GAMH, and happy for that,
as it was a Great Show, truly a fine start to the tour,
an audience full of guitar players, teachers & dedicated fans...
CGT's been at it just over 10 years now, admittedly we've only
been aware of them over the last 5 or 6, and last night we saw them
in the bona-fide trio configuration, as they are doing many shows
with bass player & occasionally a drummer nowadays, but the sound
of those three extremely competent musicians alone onstage,
well, damn, one hopes they book a show in your neighborhood
one day soon. We'll be putting a few select tunes of theirs up
and available for you to enjoy, but not now, and not likely today
because this is a night we'll be bedding down early, as two nights
consecutively of 3 hours dreamtime is just not enough...
8.14
yesssss!, puhleezzze lay off...
give us many smootchies instead!
~ ~ ~
two things, which upon reading....
provided us much pleasure (& a tiny bit of envy...)
from yesterday's Poetry Daily
then, from Ms. Armstrong's Open Brackets
~ ~ ~
y otra cosa mas...
thanks to Mark @ wood s lot for the Hitchens link
~ ~ ~
an interesting perspective on
the current resident & political climate
via The Atlantic On-Line
& slightly, ever so, political:
de-coding Fuzz-Face Al Gore
~ ~ ~
a cautionary word to the fellahs...
hmmmm, maybe datz why M.J. Fox always had
that kind of tight-lipped look...
'course mebbe a few stewed prunes mek everting okeh...
~ ~ ~
oncet upon a time, in what seems to be
an alternate universe far, far away, yourstruly was on a sailing
voyage along the Pacific coast of Mexico, and our memories
of sailing in the company of grey whales, and in particular,
one bright sunny day in Cabo San Lucas, the four of us
in our Zodiac, racing alongside a great grey steaming it's
way north, our little 35hp motor at full throttle in an
attempt to stay close alongside the magnificent creature,
oh, those memories & more came rushing back upon reading this
~ ~ ~
a bright spot in an otherwise
unremarkable tuesday, CGT @ Great American Music Hall
8.13
hie thyselves here
w/thanks to the clever folks at Words Mean Things, Feral Living
& the mighty Ms E @ Swallowing Tacks for pointing the way...
~ ~ ~
ugghhh... a pox on mondays...
Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history,
is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress
has been made, through disobedience & through rebellion.
Oscar Wilde
& we found that at today's Daily Bleed
more coffee, please, vite vite!
~ ~ ~
I am your Hairy Brother
~ ~ ~
oh dear! why are we #1 result here?
well, we thankful that didn't last too long...
8.12
simply put, the weekend has not enough hours...
to enjoy all of the activities we intended to indulge ourselves in,
but we did manage to find ourselves a spot in Live Oak Park to attend a
performance of the S.F. Mime Troupe's 1600 Transylvania Avenue, and oh, we wished you all could have been there. Actually today is likely a better day to enjoy the show in Live Oak, as the sun shone fiercely upon those in the middle of the audience, unprotected by the fringe of shade along the perimeter of the park, which is where you would have found yourstruly, and today, well, it is past 10 Am and the sun is still well obscured. Really, if you've the opportunity, see them, it's clever & beautifully performed and leaves you wishing there were more opportunities like these, more shows, more touring theatre groups, particularly when realizing our good fortune to live here & now where we can indulge and not in some place without a like degree of cultural diversity and opportunity.
yessssss, that was fun, & as they'll be in Berkeley again in another week or so, we hope to take along brother K & the children, because we think it a lovely thing to introduce children to, some real alternative to the world of video and computer games, music videos, malls, and all of that horrible modern culture crap, egads....
so, our other reason for making an appearance today (shite, we have to go to work tomorrow don't we...) ahhhhhh, well we were watching ITN on cable the other night and caught sight of a piece on this exhibition and, well, we were sort of mesmerized,
whoo-hooo, found the link to the news story (real video format) at this page
and we're not certain that we hadn't already heard or read something regarding the artist/the exhibition/the technique, nevertheless, we hope that the exhibition might leave european shores for something a little closer by (yeahhh, we know, it's a great excuse for a trip to europe and if we planned such a thing, wethinks we'd like to see the exhibition here which we believe is
the next location of the exhibition according to
this page (it seems not all pages include english translation). As is our usual habit upon having
our curiosity sparked, we sought out some references to the exhibition & artist and we found a number of items,
beginning with this from FreeRepublic;
this review from the World Socialist web site; this next item has a few pictures, a review from beachbrowser.com (Florida! who'd a thunk it?); a related article from Scientific American w/more about the technique is included here; the next article confirms my earlier suspicion that we'd heard about this show before, but for whatever reason (real life perhaps?) overlooked/forgot about it, from artnewspaper.com (deserves a link to homepage of its very own); venture forth google-ishly w/search for G. von Hagens where plenty more to peruse awaits one. We may take the opportunity to come back later and digress upon why we are so fascinated by this exhibition, but for now, here are a couple of little art projects for you, maybe
you've some kinder around loudly proclaiming how bored they are: part of a suggested curriculum on My Amazing Human Body & then, this brief item on Leonardo, body size/part ratios, art & science,
& please, don't go blaming us if the cat goes missing in your household, okay???
~ ~ ~
whew...
so now there's a precedent in the case law
for those of us, OOPS, ahem...
for those w/similiar difficulties...
8.11
last minute linky goodness...
fresh new face on geegaw
& must confess to being completely taken aback by
the story offered up in today's post...
~ ~ ~
quick note before we hit the road...
at Fort Mason, SF: ACC Craft Show;
the Craft Council website; SF Show Exhibitor List
yahhhh, we know it started yesterday, sorry we didn't provide news sooner
and in Berkeley's Live Oak Park, today AND Sunday:
San Francisco Mime Troupe
NO gloves/white faces. satirical/political theatre at it's finest...
and, finally, this reminder of the legacy the GOP lives up to even to this day
now get out there and grab yourself some enjoyment before
you got to go back to that thankless j-o-b...
~ ~ ~
it ain't just in D.C., brother...
you might catch a fine half-court game at Live Oak Park
the S.F. Pro-Am Championships on tap at Kezar Pavilion
and game admission is ALWAYS FREE...
8.10
other places to visit today until
the weekend arrives:
the hotsy totsy club; environy; ftrain; GMT + 9;
BookNotes; haha - no serious; wood s lot;
surprise; riley dog; mood indigo; tony pierce;
open brackets; footprints; blue like that
More??, well, K.M.'s been busy lately, cannot post
like he used to, but visit his neighborhood ennyway...
disclaimer: sites listed above only a mere few of our personal faves...
~ ~ ~
for those of you wondering, the official start
of the weekend is NOON, PST...
mincing words no further, do not waste your time & money
seeing stuff like Am. Pie II, planet of the dumbestmonkees;
enrich thyselves in a true cinematic experience & see
Apocalypse Now Redux, opening nationwide this weekend...
AND buy yourself the 8.13 issue of New Yorker because
the article you should read is not at N.Y. on-line,
it's a piece by Adam Gopnick entitled "That Sunday":
If you are vulnerable to this music, however, you are completely vulnerable to it. Bill Evans has no casual fans. After that afternoon, his name became synonymous with a heartbreak quality that is not like anything else in music. It is not little-boy-lost or blue, like Miles Davis, but transparent and wistful. Evan's solos on "Alice in Wonderland" and "My Foolish Heart" and, especially, "Porgy" have a mother-of-pearl tone, singing and skipping, as though they were being played on the celesta or the xylophone. They are as close to pure emotion, produced without impediments--not at all the same thing as an entire self poured out without inhibitions, the bebop dream--as exists in music. His music hints at the secret truth that New York is sad before it is busy, and that it is a kind of inverted garden, with all the flowers blooming down in the basements.
oh my, my, my, Mr. Gopnick....
those canny folks at the N.Y. did give us this
oh, & then there's this too, on-line
which makes us rather wish we had made her aquaintence...
~ ~ ~
on some days, it takes a lot to make us laugh...
this day might be one of those days, nevertheless...
stonerrock; onlyinmyhead; supersecretsucky;
cynical wisdom or funny shit; on-line slang dictionary; the shit page;
okayokayokay, datz enuf, you try to find something funny
early on a friday morning when you all tired & weary
and been up way too late the night before & you got mebbe
15 minutes left to get dressed & out da door to the j-o-b
where the hell of weekend deadlines awaits and... and... and...
8.9
offered up for your perusal...
late summer Ralph
(oh my! can you say v i t r i o l )
& Zoetrope All Story, Fall 2001
~ ~ ~
holy boy! s'one of our favorite places!
ooooh, you hinterlanders stay away!
Berkeley's Tilden Park
part of the Easy Bay Regional Parks
bonus extra special linky goodness!
pano views of 3 spots in Tilden
~ ~ ~
waaaaaal, itza cool cloudy foggish morning...
feeling minor (quite minor) pangs of sympathy for the
inexperienced tourist visiting hereabouts & living w/
temps in the 40s w/steady breeze off the ocean, hmmmmm,
it's the kind of stuff we relish, but we see them poor souls
huddled about the cable-car turnaround at Powell St.
shiveringly goose-pimpled wondering if the sun will
shine on them long enough to warm their cold tushies...
da poor bastidz...
ennnyway, found mention of one of our fave magazines at
a couple of places recently, we are speaking about
DoubleTake, and happy to have run across said mentions
as the last time we dropped by the site, it hadn't been
updated for some months, and now, there's a bright & shiny
new appearance with lots of on-line content available,
like this item, which we were led to by riley dog;
and then also this one, pointed out by the folks at
waterloo wide web.
AND, as we've been longtime subscriber to DoubleTake,
we remind you that a subscription makes a great gift!
~ ~ ~
briefly, some items in the news...
Ridgeway weighs in with Theocracy Now;
an interesting place to spend a little time:
HistoryWired;
heartbreaking stuff this, leaving us wondering why?;
and, no, it wasn't yourstruly.
perhaps more later, likely to be a busy day...
8.8
whoa... no shit...
~ ~ ~
ooooh yessssss, we luvzz 'em too...
olives iz one of da' thins we talkin' 'bout...
two items from our local fishwrap:
Tribute for a Beloved Singer;
re the range of possibilities, by J.C.
~ ~ ~
from today's little zen calendar...
In this twentieth century, to stop rushing around,
to sit quietly on the grass, to switch off the world
and come back to the earth, to allow the eye to see a willow,
a bush, a cloud, a leaf, is "an unforgettable experience"...
Frederick Franck
~ ~ ~
speaking for ourowndamnselves, a lovely morn...
then we got to the j-o-b and learned d'monkey was not on-line,
ALORS! we thought to ourselves, vas ist los?
Big Kudos to Andrew of the Pitas-folk, who responded
within 10 minutes of our emailed inquiry to him:
Yo, WotDaFuggUpwidDaPitasPages?????????
and now, we back up, 5 x 5, familiar mammalian goodness
once again available to the dedicated dozen read-dears...
a belated Happy B-day to a certain Ms. Tomek,
we were seeking something appropriate to send her way,
besides our own insubstantial wishes
(we KNOW Pat took care of business)
but we did come across the item linked below,
and we have plenty high regard for this author's work
so, for Ms. T, on her day of days:
To Tamzen On Her Fortieth Birthday
oh, and this lovely item too
~ ~ ~
and to the doubting Thomasina out there
in the land of the REALLY tiny-brained folk;
yesssss, all it takes is one phone call from
el rey de los changos to make things right...
8.7
started out the day feelink grizzly grumpish...
so it's nice to come across something makes us laugh,
this list of alternative Star Wars Episode II titles,
(more lists located here)
courtesy the kool kidz at IBS
~ ~ ~
ahhh, those kids named Johnny
will do it every time...
this just in from esteemed fishwrap colleague:
President George W. Bush is visiting an elementary school today and he visits one of the 4th
grade classes. They are in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings.
The teacher asks the President if he would like to lead the class in the discussion of the word,
"tragedy." So the president asks the class for an example of a "tragedy."
One little boy stands up and offers, "If my best friend, who lives next door, is playing
in the street and a car comes along and runs him over, that would be a tragedy."
"No" says Bush, "that would be an accident."
A little girl raises her hand: "If a school bus carrying 50 children drove off a cliff,
killing everyone involved, that would be a tragedy."
"I'm afraid not" explains the President. "That's what we would call a GREAT LOSS."
The room goes silent. No other children volunteer. President Bush searches the room.
"Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?"
Finally, way in the back of the room, a boy named Johnny raises his hand.
In a quiet voice he says, "If Air Force One, carrying you and Mrs. Bush,
was struck by a missile and blown up to smithereens, that would be a tragedy.
"Correct" exclaims Bush, "that's right. And can you tell me WHY that would be a tragedy?"
"Well," Lil' Johnny said, "because, like you just told us, it wouldn't be an accident,
and it sure as hell wouldn't be a great loss."
~ ~ ~
in the land of tiny-brained folk...
it appears approval can be bought,
which is really nothing new to most of us,
yet remains depressing as all hell...
~ ~ ~
el residente esta en vacacion...
let's not kid ourselves about this; here we have a fortunate son, born to priviledge & wealth, someone who has never worked up a real sweat anytime in their life (except, possibly, when pulled over for a DWI); we have his administration providing full-court briefing to assuage any fear we may have that our country is in the hands of a lazy ass moron,
they even go as far as providing the titles of books the putz-in-chief is allegedly reading, alhough I for one am willing to bet the schnook's reading comprehension skills leave much to be desired. Thirty days is what this little holiday is scheduled for, with the occasional photo opportunity, oh yesssss, like the one with Habitat for Humanity where we will no doubt be treated to the sight of the fool himself with hammer in hand (and no, we not talking 'bout the residential equipment, goddess save us from even imagining such a thing) pretending to know which end is the business end. This guy should be front and center, if he wants to be taken seriously as The Leader of the Free World, instead of the chump who has profited from political chicanery of the highest order and now gets to fly in that fabulous jet. Three and a half more years of this shit folks, this is what we are going to get, all fluff, no substance, this man has no clue and we are stuck with his lame ass for three and a half more years. I don't know about you, but that
makes me ill, and if this is one of the ways I'm provided to make my voice heard,
I am going to use it, I'll suggest that you do, too:
President George Bush
The Whitehouse
Washington, DC 20500
tel 1-202-456-1414 fax 1-202-456-2461
PRESIDENT@WHITEHOUSE.GOV
8.6
& although it is monday
the mood, so far, is good...
a young athlete, a tragic accident...
Jeanne Marie Laskas researches & writes a profile on Korey Stringer for Esquire magazine intended for the September issue and, as most of you all know by now, Mr. Stringer dies tragically in training camp. Ms. Laskas' story here
~ ~ ~
minor occurance of serendipity yesterday when after posting
the NY items below we got around to reading the sunday fishwrap,
and discovered
oops...
damn, not again...
now why'd you have to come down here & take a look?
isn't it enough that we copped to our lack of intelligence?
you don't have anything better to do than come down here
and see for yourowndamnselves?
8.5
a quiet sunday, a brief mention of 2 things
in particular, these excerpts from The New Yorker,
this first from 7.30 issue, entitled Java Man, by Malcolm Gladwell:
It is worth noting, as well, that in the original coffeehouses nearly everyone
smoked, and nicotine also has a distinctive physiological effect. It moderates
mood and extends attention, and, more important, it doubles the rate of caffeine
metabolism; it allows you to drink twice as much coffee as you could otherwise.
In other words, the original coffeehouse was a place where men of all types could
sit all day; the tobacco they smoked made it possible to drink coffee all day;
and the coffee they drank inspired them to talk all day.
Out of this came the Enlightenment.
(The next time we so perfectly married pharmacology
and place, we got Joan Baez.)
This other item from the 8.6 issue, Darkness Revisited by Anthony Lane:
...Twenty-two years on, the picture has aged better than we have; it both feeds our hunger for sensation and scorns our impatient need to have it all right now---apocalypse is, whatever the title claims, always waiting around the river bend. Many people will continue to find it incoherent, but, frankly, given the choice between a work so laden with ambition that it nearly breaks its back and the stiff, crowing blockbusters of today, too timid to stretch their wings, I know which I would take. If you have never watched "Apocalypse Now" in any form; if you know it well and wish to bend your jesuitical attention to the latest addenda; if you have grown to love it on scumbled videotape but failed to catch it on the big screen; if you were out of your head during a pre-dawn college showing, duly noted the movie as a trip, and find yourself unable to remember whether the trip in question was Coppola's, America's, or yours; in short, however reverent or rocky your relations with this film---see it now.
8.3
emptying my boat as I go along...
If a man is crossing the river and an empty boat collides with his skiff,
even though he is a bad-tempered man he will not become very angry.
But if he sees a man in the other boat he will scream and shout and curse
at the man to steer clear. If you can empty your own boat crossing the river
of the world, no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you.
Thus is the perfect man - - his boat is empty.
Chuang-Tzu
~ ~ ~
Bomp bomp-bomp-bomp Bomp-Bomp
bomp bomp bomp bomp
bomp-bomp-bomp Bomp-Bomp
da da da-dah, da da da-dah...
waaaal she's a Brick (bomp bomp bomp bompbomp) House!
she's Mighty Mighty, jessta lettin' it all hang out...
tune playing on our walk-thing as we stridin' manfully
out of the train station on final approach to the j-o-b
this am, startin' this friday morn on the good foot...
not sure what the day's got in store for yourstruly,
but we got a good feelin' 'bout it,
wishing you a fine friday leading to enjoyable weekend...
~ ~ ~
some crazed variant of Friday Follies
our simian self presents The Dancing Monkey Saloon;
???: Cecil the Cajun Monkey;
Twenty-Eight Visitors and Counting,
or "The Dangers of HTML in Uncertain Hands";
the Funky Monkey? hardly...
the Funky Monkey? naaah, don' thin' so...
the Funky Monkey? yahhhh... right...
the Funky Monkey? Peach Schnapps? getdafuggouddaheah!
hmmmm... not funky, & not so nasty
okayokayokay, datz enuf 'bout monkeys, here's drugbunny
& more stuff to seek out on your own at Outlands
8.2
goshdarnitall!!! WAY busy today...
been meaning to mention this for awhile...
visit the Monkey Show,
courtesy the always excellent GMT+9
& by the way, some of yaz been waitin' to hear the word
on T. Burton's Planet etc. from da ol' silverback hisself:
phooooey! sad, dumb, insulting to any primate's intelligence
~ ~ ~
speaking of rollercoasters...
compared to y e s t e r d a y,
we feelink pretty damned good at the moment...
this quote from Scott Ostler's Chron column:
"Sebastian Janikowski says he has put his past behind him,
which is good, because if you put your past in front of you,
you have to go backward to get to the future."
true, so bloody true...
~ ~ ~
an inquiring mind asks
"why U B so Blue, Binky?"
'cause of crap like this, this,
this and... and... ahhhh shit...
bettah not go there Binky, for that way madness lies...
~ ~ ~
we take our leave of you (at the moment anyway)
with a brief history lesson, courtesy the Daily Bleed
8.1
be kinda quiet hereabouts today...
forgive us katz & kitteez, suddenly feelink blue,
unaccountably, so hie theyselves elsewhere & keep
thine own spirits up. Must be the tenor of the times,
not sure why or wherefore, but we'll get past it...
& thanks for dropping by, really
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