we have to keep Henry under control... 12.28.05
that's Werner Herzog in the movie about creating & recording the soundtrack for his documentary Grizzly Man. Later he tells Henry "Henry when you are at the electric guitar, we might keep you in control, somewhat...". Of course you've already seen Henry in his metier, so to speak, During this early section of the film, you're introduced to the other musicians/characters, one of them Richard Thompson. In the Edges: The Grizzly Man Sessions (keep typing Grillzy Man, DUH...), so far as yourstruly's concerned, rent the DVD & make a point of seeing this doc, the only really Special Feature on the disc. RT doesn't say much in the film, 'cept on guitar, and the whole process of watching Herzog the film maker directing the collaboration amongst the musicians, seeming satisfied beyond his expectations has its rewards. Enjoyed In the Edges more than Herzog's film, maybe because it didn't have that horrible eaten-by-bear reality of G.M. You can't help but feel great sympathy for anyone who has been killed and eaten by a grizzly bear, it must have been agonizing. Was it a more horrifying thing for this Timothy Treadwell guy or on some level it is possible he believed he was transitioning to Bear-ness? Don't get us wrong, glad we saw Grizzly Man and recommend it. Another line from In the Edges, achieving incidental level of modern cultural significance with the presence in theatres currently of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain: "but this is for the cowboys, that song is for the rodeo riders, that's for the real men.". Great deal when you think about it, a fine documentary on a tragically bent fellow along with musical second feature & that have Richard Thompson's guitar work present in both, all wrapped up in one disc.
Two items from the daily fishwrap, regarding modern times and familiar neighborhoods: imagine, Albany becomes a lifestyle center; Ambitious commercial development in downtown Berkeley;
the overheated S.F. Bay area real estate values make waterfront development in Albany a fait accompli, just a matter of those citizens watching their steps along that road, taking care.
you all know what day it is today... xmas '05
hohoho and alla dat shite, happy happy, merry merry and yourstruly for one is glad that it's nearly past us. Our intent is not to put any kind of damper on your own merrymaking ways, just making it clear that ourowndamnedself is not any kind of xmassy-person, merely tolerates it for the most part.
One reason behind that is that (and for this fact many of you should be thankful) l'Marquis remains childless, will one day have no one to pass the mantle onto, so to speak, and the long and glorious line of d'Monquis Misfits will come to an end. Hey, it's almost the end of 2005, too, and as far as we're concerned, that is always something to look forward to: Out with the Olde, In with the Newe, and springtime not many month away.
Goshdarnitall, it appears to be raining again, and not that it is a bad thing, just wasn't counting on it showing up until later in the day today. Yesterday was a lovely day, the sun was out and things got pretty warm, gave us an opportunity to begin work on trimming the monstrous hedge that borders the west side of the Albany house. Did a bit of laundry and hung it out overnight to do a bit of drying, maybe toss it in the dryer on Air Fluff for a bit after bringing it in, but the clerk of the weather put the chingas to any plans for that as we discerned moisture dropping from the skies when we let the Cully-dogg outdoors for his morning constitutional. Ahhhhh, well, Northern California in late December, we should expect nothing else but some rain falling hereabouts and snow in the mountains.
Good pal over at Plep has plenty of chewy linky holiday goodness to share with ye, so if you've of a mind to indulge your holiday habit, please check them out, BTW, always (!!!) good stuff to peruse at Plep. Something to go along with link you will find there re building your own Tony Blair, try putting together your own version of GWB, that link we salvaged from a trip in the Way Back Machine to d'monkey of July '01 (damn, got to do sumptink 'bout the missing MP3 files...).
hokay now, some follow up on the ukelele guy interview from la otra dia -- the katz name is Peter Hurney (AKA Pohaku), his shop is Pohaku Ukuleles, his website pohakuukulele.com. Thanks to Paloma, whose show follows the Sight Unseen show mentioned, wherein Pohaku interview took place, was kinda confusin' to yourstruly, but you know l'Marquis, he be easily confused. Very cool thing that was mentioned in the course of the interview was an exhibit in downtown Berkeley's theatre/arts district (something still largely getting under way altho' the Berkeley Rep has been in that Addison St. location a L O N G time) on Addison St. There are a series of large display windows on the exterior of the main parking garage in downtown, referred to as the Addison St. Art Windows, and Pohaku, along with a few other N.Cal luthiers, have put together a wonderful exhibit on the craft of lutherie, most guitar and ukulele. Some links to pics will be included at the end of this post, leading to fairly large images, apologies for the flaws, wot-da-hell, maybe we try for better shots 'fore we leave this golden shore. Enjoy your day, Binky... window one; window two; window three; window four.
a cloudy and foggy early morning stroll on Solano Ave... 12.23.05
nice though, that there was this pause between storm systems, 'cause it poured yesterday, indeed. Regarding that image inserted beneath these lines here, put a bit of grey in that head of hair and you've got some idea of how yourstruly looks whenever we're again reminded of the idiocy of George W. Bush. That linky bit o'goodness is from A.C.'s give love: get love. Wanna make your own speech bubble? Hie thyselves here. Credit where credit's due, becoup thanks to JBR at Swirlee for hooking us up wit dat...
Very fine interview on KALX presently, thinking it's the Sight Unseen show, unfortunately yourstruly's not paying full attention so we've yet
to get this guy's name (got a minion working on calling the studio 'fore the ukelele guy splits), ukulele builder & musician talking ukelele stuff -- damn! A deluxe bit of linky goodness provided by ukulele dude, check out Ukulele Disco; playing in backround of interview were some songs recorded by amigo of the ukulele guy named David Silverberg, nice (!) jazzy stuff, plus he treated us to tunes by Bill Tapia alongside lovely version of G. Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps by youthful ukulele sensation we'd heard about named Jake Shimabukuro (& happened to read about in the fall issue of Frets magazine). Then something with more traditional Hawaiian kine ukulele playin' from Na Kane Nui, da kine, bruddah. More on this later, after we check up on some info garnered by minion in brief conversation with the ukulele guy.
breathtaking inanity said the judge...
12.21.05
yes, we could not have described it better ourowndamnedself. Kudos, bows, and many tips of the old red fez in
the direction of the Hon. John E. Jones III, and isn't this judgement of his pretty damn good news for the forces of
truth and justice? Oh yah! & then, just when we wuz about to go all down in the dumps 'cause we'd heard the
news about how they attached the ANWAR drilling business to some piece of shite defense spending bill, it
turns out some folks in our government are saying, "Hey, not so fast, Jack!". Quick aside here, for those of ye
who wish to avoid that site registration requirement, whether it be with the NYT or not, please take
advantage of Bug Me Not. While we're at it, yourstruly
realizes the magnitude of difficulty involved in the impeachment process, but we'd be happy (& that's a
fuckin' understatement...) if the Articles of Impeachment were invoked against that fool GWB, just to get the
matter on the historical record.
Out early this morning for quietly ruminative stroll up Solano, visit the local Peet's for long awaited short
double cap, mmmm mmmm good, babeee. Began raining once again late yesterday afternoon, on and off -- mostly
on though -- throughout the night, very little precip during our stroll up Solano and back, the skies solidly
grey, the cloud ceiling low, yet the hills of Kensington & Berkeley still visible, with patches of fog rising
slowly from dales scattered amongst the hills. BIG constrast to the dry winter air of the desert southwest,
the starkness of the desert mountains compared to the variety of verdant greens in the neighborhood here.
Listening to KALX whilst in the Albany house, DJs there
sharing a wonderfully diverse variety of holiday tunes, definitely not the usual batch of yuletide-ish stuff.
Egads, talking about xmas music, the first we ever heard of an outfit called the Trans-Siberian Orchestra was
via ads for a concert tour they were engaged in, one of the stops being EPTx, and once we figured out what
this group was about, we thought whoa, what a racket! Xmas music in the guise of electric R & R, put out a
record and follow up with yearly tours, make some bucks and take the rest of the year off. Then, quite by
accident, we ran across article in the NYT Sunday magazine (saved it for in-flight reading enjoyment) article on Chip Davis & his Mannheim Steamroller empire. No wonder we gets assholes
like George Bush (both of them) and Tom DeLay (to name just a couple of the more obvious examples) elected,
there's a brain-dead electorate out there and they're the same folks enamoured of this holiday crapola from
people like Chip Davis and the TSO. Shite! There is truly No Hope!
Oh, and then we made trip to the Monterey Market to stock up on fruit and veggies, goshdarnitall, another
example of major contrast between there (EPTx) and here (Berkeley/Albany/East S.F. Bay environs), the utter
and nearly overwhelming variety (not to speak of the utter beauty of it all), of fresh produce. Damn-o-Lay,
Binky, nice to get a taste of this every now and again, that's for sure. Okay, goshdarnitall, you can still
find tacos, burritos, tamales and mexican food around here, yes indeed, and we'll grant ye that you'll no
doubt find more comida mexicana (WAY more) and much cheaper (WAY WAY cheaper) in EPTx, not to mention that
when you stop in some little mom and pop panaderia in EPTx you can walk out with a big ol' bag full of
goodies for just a couple of bucks, whereas here, a lovely fresh croissant might set you back a buck and
half, or nearly so. Maybe, just maybe, yourstruly should then consider hisowndamnedself one lucky monkeyfellah to be able to
get back and forth as often as he does, eh Binky?
alright, things to do and places to go/see, so we try and wrap this edition up pronto quickly. Otra cosa from
the NYT Sunday mag, The Price of Oil, by Peter Maass. l'Marquis would also like to credit
site we linked hereabouts recently, as they provide link to that PDF file residing behind the link on the
first line of today's post; thanks to the fine mind behind And god
Said 'Let There Be Evolution...', please note that said fine mind also provides link to transcript of the
Dover trial. Yesterday we posted a link to tablature for fine old tune, A Satisfied Mind, and the inspiration
behind our doing that was that prior to our departing EPTx, yourstruly was tranferring a ton of MP3 files
from his beloved ol'Mongoose (Bro K put together that computer for us, and nearly on its last legs, so to
speak, so we salvaging a bunchastuff 'fore we lose it altogether...), afterwards listened to a LOT of the
Lucinda Williams tunes we had stashed on the Mongoose, one of them being her version of that tune. A more
complete set of lyrics available to you on this Satified Mind tab, and you can find a nice selection of Lucinda Williams
tabs here. Likely something we overlooked mention of, so we might be back here before too long, you've
got the generousity of Coach S. who left her laptop behind, not to mention the NICE FAT PIPE it's attached
to. Oh Joy! Oh Rapture!
we tol' ye we wuz headin' thisaway...
12.20.05
dint we? pretty sure we did, Binky, looks like the post on the 6th, our initial post of the month. Yes, it is
true, we didn't send out personalized notices to all and sundry, ain't l'Marquis' style to do such a thing,
ANYWAY- we is here, and amazed by ease of the whole process, other than getting up at dark-thirty to catch
6:55 flight out of EPT, 40 folk onboard to Albuquerque, no change of planes so fifteen minutes later we are
winging our way to Oaktown, CA, with forty-two souls aboard, landing on the 9:30 local PST time. EEEEE ZEEEE!
Man, wish it was always like that. Coach S. was herowndarnedself flying off to other coast rendevous with
familia, made arrangement to leave her redsubaru at the El Cerrito Bart station, ol'johnny chango picked up
car there and made quick stop at grocery for some supplies, made to the Albany House a bit before Noon. Nice
day locally, evidence of recent rainyness, but no precip this morning, plenty of clouds tho', and cool,
yessss indeed, but not uncomfortably so. Interesting being back and doing the Bart thing, being aware of how
tremendously different the east bay environs and far southwest texass/border environs are, on SO many levels.
mebbe more in a bit, ye saaweeet preeeeetie theeeeengs, but firstly, would like to get a bowl of soup into ourowndamnedself, cuz we be HUNGRY! For the present, we leave ye with a new tab to get under thy belt,
Satisfied Mind.
puerile and sophomoric... 12.14.05
ahhhh, we been called worse Binky, but when it comes to the degree of loathing yourstruly harbors for that great waste of space known as G. W. Bush, alongside his hench-folk Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Rice, et al (egads, the size of that list), well, calling ol' Georgy-boy a slimy turd is going light on the guy. l'Marquis hesitates to use discriptive terms like weasels, hyenas, vultures, and dumb apes as we prefer not to disparage those innocents in the animal kingdom that cannot deny their true natures, whereas those empty suits making up the cad-ministration all ought to know better and have had plenty of opportunity to see the error of their ways and apply mid-course corrections yet instead have chosen otherwise, so slimily turdish they remain.
just going to do a slow ramble here, share a few items that came to our attention whilst visiting our laundrylist of varied and sundry sitios favoritos. Whilst dropping in on the our pal at p s s s t, noticed link there that led us to SimiliarMinds.com; results of one of the tests we took reminded us of event that took place long ago, during the last great love affair of l'Marquis remarkably tempestuous romantic history, ahhhh, but we'll leave the telling of that tale for another time.
Next up, couple of sites new to us, dealing with that political/sociological end of the spectrum, in one sense or another: Counterbias.com; Feminista! (and just so ye know, the item there that initially caught our attention, In George Bush's Texas; next one up, definitely on the odd end of anybody's spectrum, Inside the Mind of GWB, from Reverse Speech; try to wrap up this exercise in meaninglessness with a few chunks of chewy, linky goodness, Grammar.Police; CrimethInc; History is a Weapon; Body and Soul; And God said 'Let there be evolution...'; greg.org. Ho-kay now, datz enuf o' dat, wethinks. What's that Binky, what were the results of test mentioned earlier? okay, if ye really wanna know...
it's just a goddamned piece of paper... 12.13.05
those of ye who happen by here on any kind of regular basis are already well acquainted with the loathing and low esteem we harbor for el residente, and what we'd find surprising is discovery of evidence that the slimy turd currently ensconsed in the White House actually felt it important to honour & respect the constitution. Mind ye, we reading that news from Capitol Hill Blue with a grain of salt, but what familiarity we possess with the thought processes and mindthink of the movers and shakers in the cad-ministration makes it very easy to believe the event was described accurately. Great thanks (again) to the fine mind over at wood s lot for providing linky bit of goodness leading us to C.H.B. Whilst in the midst of tippin' our ol'red fez in his direction, want to point out a couple of other items his astuteness led us to: an NYT editorial, Death of an American City, and a response to that editiorial piece courtesy The Blogging of the President's Ian Welsh, Time for a Soft Shoe Rant.
dear Duane... 12.09.05
you stupid fucking moron...
ahhhh, sorry 'bout that, and 'fore yourstruly allows himself to digress allow him to provide ye with copy of letter published in yesterday's El Paso Times:
I am puzzled that those who believe the evolution theory claim it to be scientifically proven. In my opinion, if something (a frog, monkey, etc.) evolved to become the human beings we are today, then why does the "something" still exist today?
After all, if it indeed "evolved" into something else, the evolution process must have surely eliminated the original state of the "something."
But, we still have frogs, monkeys, apes, etc., so I cannot grasp that a "scientific fact" has been proven regarding evolution. And if one is to offer that we evolved from a molecule or a nucleus, then who created those?
The same goes for the "Big Bang" theory ... who created the molecule or nucleus that "banged?"
Could anything as complex as the human body, or as perfect in harmony as the universe, come about accidentally without an architect?
While one cannot prove scientifically the creation theory, I also do not believe the evolution theory has been proven scientifically and, since we are all privileged to believe as we see fit, I will cling by faith to my belief we and our universe have been created and are sustained by a loving God.
Duane Coleman
Upper Valley
did ye go to Oral Roberts University, Duane? Egads, reading this had us simultaneously cringing and leaping out of our chair in dismay and disbelief. Have to remind ourowndamnedself that this country(world) is just rotten with this kind of non-thought, ignorance, stupidity, and wonder at the judgement of the Letters Section editor in publishing this, maybe he/she thought it was worth a laugh, more likely the company policy agrees with mr D. Coleman of the Upper Valley.
Awfully interesting piece in the 12.5 New Yorker (great cover!) re this issue, entitled Darwin in the Dock, by Margaret Talbot. Sought it out via a google and only found these mentions, had hoped some enterprising soul might have arranged to make the item available to us, as the New Yorker kept it on a Buy The Magazine If You Want To Read The Damned Thing basis.
From the Sunday N.Y.T. came this article: Intelligent Design Might Be Meeting Its Maker, and while yourstruly would enjoy taking a few pokes at that intellectual argument that Mr. Coleman is attempting, it's much too early in the day, we are in the midst of enjoying our morning cuppa then have to drive off with the Momz to pick up her car, which spent the day in the dealership having cooling system & a few other concerns attended to, just that we felt compelled to share the wit and wisdom of Duane Coleman with ye. Dear Duane, it is not so shameful a thing to consider ourselves evolved from our fellow primates, those many varieties of monkeys and apes that still stride amongst us, despite your own theory. It is more likely they who feel some large degree of shame when they gaze upon the wonder that is man and think to themselves "oh shite, how did it all go so awfully wrong?" Love and Kisses, l'Marquis d'Monquis
h a l l o t h e r e . . . 12.07.05
wot'z this, eh? why it's Harold Pinter's Nobel lecture, courtesy the Guardian.
well said, Harold, well said...
those of ye who might be wondering how the tuesday baking extravaganza turned out will be happy to know that we met with success on all three efforts, altho' we nearly managed to botch the most labor-intensive recipe, that of the pound cake known as Granny's. You see, yourstruly has a bad habit of often checking on the progress of yummygoodything in the oven by opening the oven door and having a look, which often results in things losing a bit of their stature, depending on a few variables, so, thinking ourselves brilliant at the moment, we utilized the locking lever on the oven door to prevent ourself from our own bad habit, not realizing that doing so would essentially turn the oven off. You can well imagine our consternation when we discovered this fact about 45 minutes into what we had thought was the baking process. Shitegoddamitalltohell we shouted as we cursed ourself for our own damn stupidity. Seems the oven lock is to be used only when CLEANING the damned thing. Thank goodness we didn't ruin the pound cake, turns out the crust was a little harder baked than the last time we tried this recipe resulting in a bit more crunch, yet a delicate one. There were a couple of bananas we needed to use up, l'Marquis prefers his with a bit of green yet apparent, so you see that loaf there alongside. This time we used a cup of whole wheat flour alongside the cup of all-purpose, and it's really a blessedly simple recipe. Some walnuts added, jessferdahalibut, and the banana flavour rather subtle, not overwhelming at all, a slice goes awfully nicely with a nice hot cuppa, and as cool as it has been around here in the early Am of late, well, nuttin' says lovin' like something from the oven, eh Binky? Turned out we had plenty of momentum, and lots of carrots, enough to grate up a couple of cups worth at least, and we wanted to utilize new silicon kinda baking thingie purchased a week or so ago. This recipe calls for 2 and a quarter cups of flour, so we substited whole wheat again for one of those req'd cups, also added a bit of pineapple, and as we had some icing left over from some baking we did for somebuddy's birthday recently, we thought it would go nicely with our carrot cake, altho' yourstruly not that great a hand at applying frosting/cake decorating, and the "pan" this was baked in had a lovely pattern of ridges across the top of the cake, but it turned out fine, wethinks, and it is certainly tres yummy, oh yessssss...
recipes available on request; by the way, visited a decent taco joint the other day in the company of Brother Daniel and the Momz, out on the west side of town, maybe we give ye some more details 'bout that lunchtime repast next time around. Hey, howzabout a new tab to share with ye? Cowboy Junkies, Angel Mine
hey dere, katz und kitteez... 12.06.05
and just where da hell does the time go, eh Binky? Today Johnny Chango's busy in the kitchen, baking up a storm, just put Grandma's Poundcake in the oven, making some banana bread once that's outta the oven (mainly 'cause there are some bananas to utilize, we doesn't like 'em when they too spotty and brownish...), maybe even some carrot cake if one can maintain the necessary momentum. Maybe next time around -- got to bake a chocolate version of Grandma's Poundcake for Sister Victoria's early holiday celebration this weekend -- we take some pics and provide ye recipe, who knows, mebbe a new and regular feature 'round these parts. Victoria is having early xmas celebration kinda shindig as two of her daughters residing elsewhere will be in the vicinity for a visit, both of them unable to make it for the 25th, and btw, yourstruly will be in Albany during that holiday weekend, house/dogsitting, drop us a line and maybe we can share a bit o'holiday cheer.
Driving thru town recently and had NPR radio on, listening to recentLatino USA program, and it was during the segment on four American churchwomen murdered in El Salvador 25 years ago that we remembered how important the efforts of those at the School of the Americas Watch is. Amazing (well, not really, when you stop and consider...) amount of ignorance exists in this country re the behavior and actions of the U.S. Government all around this world. And they wonders why some folks dislike us so damn much. Egads. A small assortment of related linky bits: Commentary: US Army School of the Americas; School of the Americas: Backyard terrorism; Truth, Torture, and the American Way; a Debate On the School of the Americas; and then to wrap this up for now, from Reinform.org, School of Americas page.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
d'monkeytime it was and what a d'monkeytime it was it was,
a time of d'monkey innocence, a time of november d'monkey confidences
that ourowndamnedself is not any kind of xmassy-person, merely tolerates it for the most part.
One reason behind that is that (and for this fact many of you should be thankful) l'Marquis remains childless, will one day have no one to pass the mantle onto, so to speak, and the long and glorious line of d'Monquis Misfits will come to an end. Hey, it's almost the end of 2005, too, and as far as we're concerned, that is always something to look forward to: Out with the Olde, In with the Newe, and springtime not many month away.
hokay now, some follow up on the ukelele guy interview from la otra dia -- the katz name is Peter Hurney (AKA Pohaku), his shop is Pohaku Ukuleles, his website 
labor-intensive recipe, that of the pound cake known as Granny's. You see, yourstruly has a bad habit of often checking on the progress of yummygoodything in the oven by opening the oven door and having a look, which often results in things losing a bit of their stature, depending on a few variables, so, thinking ourselves brilliant at the moment, we utilized the locking lever on the oven door to prevent ourself from our own bad habit, not realizing that doing so would essentially turn the oven off. You can well imagine our consternation when we discovered this fact about 45 minutes into what we had thought was the baking process. Shitegoddamitalltohell we shouted as we cursed ourself for our own damn stupidity. Seems the oven lock is to be used only when CLEANING the damned thing. Thank goodness we didn't ruin the pound cake, turns out the crust was a little harder baked than the last time we tried this recipe resulting in a bit more crunch, yet a delicate one. 
There were a couple of bananas we needed to use up, l'Marquis prefers his with a bit of green yet apparent, so you see that loaf there alongside. This time we used a cup of whole wheat flour alongside the cup of all-purpose, and it's really a blessedly simple recipe. Some walnuts added, jessferdahalibut, and the banana flavour rather subtle, not overwhelming at all, a slice goes awfully nicely with a nice hot cuppa, and as cool as it has been around here in the early Am of late, well, nuttin' says lovin' like something from the oven, eh Binky?
Turned out we had plenty of momentum, and lots of carrots, enough to grate up a couple of cups worth at least, and we wanted to utilize new silicon kinda baking thingie purchased a week or so ago. This recipe calls for 2 and a quarter cups of flour, so we substited whole wheat again for one of those req'd cups, also added a bit of pineapple, and as we had some icing left over from some baking we did for somebuddy's birthday recently, we thought it would go nicely with our carrot cake, altho' yourstruly not that great a hand at applying frosting/cake decorating, and the "pan" this was baked in had a lovely pattern of ridges across the top of the cake, but it turned out fine, wethinks, and it is certainly tres yummy, oh yessssss...
