friday, at last... 2.28
first up, a salute to fellow Hearst Corp. employee Tim Goodman,
who provides us with a lovely tribute to Fred Rogers,
as well as many smiles & some measure of joy in his usual guise;
& then, of course, yourstruly tippin' his ol' red fez in the
direction of that young Mark Morford fellow again.
ourowndamnself recently had the pleasure of viewing the entire first season
of Six Feet Under, looking forward to premiere of the new season,
beginning this Sunday; here's T.G. again, Digging Deeper. we been meaning to put together something re our fascination for the characters & story lines in Six Feet Under, finally viewing the entire first season answered a lot of questions we had regarding the relationships between the principals and must mention here that the closing minutes of Episode Four left us sobbing like a motherless child, due to some excellent writing and fine work by several in the cast...
a l r i g h t ! 2.27
late afternoon update (4:48 pm PST):
Esquire has done the right thing and republished online
the 1998 profile of Fred Rogers written by Tom Junod, Can You Say... Hero?. bravo, gentlefolk @ esquire, bravissimo...
yourstruly is already needlessly paranoid...
well, maybe not needlessly, but the last thing we need is this: Before you board an airplane, your background will be checked. don't know 'bout the rest of youse, this puts major chills down l'Marquis' spine...
yesterday was an interesting day...
'round chez d'monquis, we get to more of that later on,
but for now, we miss our dear Mr. Rogers more than we can say.
(Esquire mag once published a wonderful interview w/Fred,
be lovely of them to reprint that on-line as a tribute
to a truly kind & singular individual...)
Now, re last nite's televised performance by el residente,
bullshit, Bullshit, BULLSHIT!
& from the Guardian UK, If Not War, Then What? Hokey Smokes Bullwinkle!
late arriving (7:52 am PST) update re F. Rogers:
Esquire has on-line eulogy by Tom Junod,
the scribe of the '98 profile.
Maybe if we send enough requests to do so,
they'll be kind enough to republish the profile...
ohOhOH- cached link re Mr. Rodgers from Christianity today;
WhooHoooo- the entire Won't You Be My Neighbor
Winnie & ourowndamnself often disagreed... 2.26
again, though, we did have a love for oratory & the smokey, peaty wonderfulness contained in a tumbler of Laphroaig...
and we rather doubt that Winnie (gawd bless the ol' dead bastid...) would lie down alongside
el residente as comfortably as that Tony B. fellow, but then again, yourstruly is an untutored, ill-mannered rascal w/few redeeming qualities, so what the fuck would we know, eh?
whilst out & about on our free weekday morning, we indulged in some good samaritan-ship, assisting fellow with
his flooded vintage toyota station wagon, pushed it out of the intersection and about half a block to an unmetered parking space where he could return later with tools and attempt to fix. We'd already our latte in hand and proceeded apace to downtown berserkley where we visited our P.O. Box (no fan mail dammit) then hied ourself off
to favorite bookstore to indulge our passion for the printed word, purchased remaindered copy of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (that one mere reference from a quickygoogle) plus a few mags & asst'd postcards & notecards to mail to our many correspondents & fellow travelers, the image above from a card distributed by
Gathered Images. oh, we are SO glad that Ethel's back, & we wonders,
we do, does S.B. indulge in the peaty loveliness of Laphroaig?
goshdarnitall... 2.25
what is that phrase that we can't recall correctly re
a prophet w/out honor in his own country or some such... Moore's 'Stupid White Men' Wins Major Book Award wow. dat wuz fast...
thanks to JW for timely heads up re Mark 6:4,
& sending along link as reference: A Prophet Without Honor
Norman was in town last nite...
speaking at the Commonwealth Club, & yourstruly was otherwise
occupied (& boy, wuz we!) else we'd likely have met up and
spent the
remainder of the evening polishing off a bottle of Laphroaig.
Little bit of what's occupying his mind of late here.
otra cosa mas: hie thyselves towards Gordon Coale's weblog,
great heaps of chewy linky goodness there today, like,
for example, this revealing item re el residente... the incredible ignorance & tiny-mindedness of this individual beggars belief,
my heart aches with despair that this man holds the position he does...
ourowndamnself still pretty pessimistic...
re the possibilities for change in administration come '04,
this was a subject that came up whilst hiking about the city
with amiga from out of town, herowndarnself a little more optimistic.
here's an item re those democratic hopefuls,
from the Washington Post, Democratic Faithful Welcome Antiwar Messengers;
& while we're at it, M. Dowd wishes Ridge-ly would make Security
more of a reality; truthfully, yourstruly won't be feeling safe at all,
not until that nincompoop resident & his minions are out of a job.
Oh! nearly forgot (remember l'Marquis c'est tres fatigue aujourd'hui...),
under the good news never stops category,
Jonathan Turley (L.A. Times) comments on another of el residente's stupid human tricks.
reported sightings of el chango tonto...
in the Haight, Golden Gate Park, and Clement Street are verifiable,
although to allay thy fears, it was not that other monkey-on-the-loose;
and oh my yesssssss, yourstruly is one weary ape-fellah this Am, and likely
facing investment in new walking shoes 'cause we wore ours out yesterday.
thanks to the bright mind behind diminished responsibility for including
linkage sending several visitors our way of late.
oh, & jessferdahalibut, Jon Carroll, Getting seriously un-Frenchified
ohOhOH, and talking about getting Frenchified,
there's a novel goin' on at Gail's
a beautiful summery weekend hereabouts... 2.23
heading into the city to catch up w/visitor from
that other coast, brekkie & a jaunt to the Haight
then likely some leisurely strolling thru GGP...
for your sunday morning edification, from Ralph,
the Official Ralph Paradox-of-the-Month.
ahhhh, the thoughtfulness of good friends... 2.21
received heads up from esteemed Betsey re
recent item by Jonathan Schell in The Nation
fixed the suddenly wonky linkage...
on the 2.19 post re E. Said at Cal (those Cal folks updated
their events calendar page...)& btw, it's worth watching,
all told, about an hour & 40 mins long, so pour
yourself a nice hot cuppa on Sunday Am, settle in &
watch the damned thing, will you...
oh, and another thing, that Morford guy again,
& something interesting in re to that, over at
American Samizdat, A Frat Boy's Revenge;
interesting item just noticed by yourstruly,
via Slate, Who's for war, who's against it, and why.
a highlight of our Sunday experience... 2.20
during the march & rally thing was catching sight of
the lovely Ms. Baez, walking w/pals alongside on her way
to the main stage, great lovely smile on her face as she strolled
down Golden Gate Ave. No, we did not want to infringe
upon her privacy, so we kept the camera in our pocket... speaking of cameras, more pictures of the S.F. shenanigans here
S.F. Chron's World Views: Anti-war protests called 'magnificent'
buttnekkid or not...
we reads many magazines, amongst other things, of late, recent Esquire mag w/B. DelToro on the cover
(after eviscerating same of back-to-back fashion ads, etc, over 40 pages worth, man that spring fashion
issue fulla crapola but something has to pay the bills and Maxim & their like are breathing down their back, so...) that has some pretty interesting stuff w/in the covers (despite the above mentioned crapola): nice piece on the Flaming Lips, interesting item on Whatever Happened to Anthrax (don't You wanna know?) and then the item we are sure to hear from their legal department about, as we are providing thee w/PDF file to print & peruse
at thy own leisure, The Pentagon's New Map, by Thomas P.M. Barnett, U.S. Naval War College, pdf file for you available here. Anyway, the issue will only set
you back three bucks and like we said, has some pretty good other stuff in it, including some good advice for the sartorially challenged male. The latest New Yorker (Annv. Issue, Feb 17 & 24 all in one) has a couple of interesting things to pass along as well and thank goodness that in this case they provided linkage to two in particular, item by Hendrik Hertzberg regarding why we should continue to aspire to accomplishments off this
beautiful blue marble, entitled Down to Earth, then there's this timely piece by Nicholas Lehmann, After Iraq which happens to
match up nicely with that Esquire piece we PDF'd for you. New Yorker On-line Only is also providing brief interview w/Mr Lehmann.
Again, that issue of New Yorker's only $3.95 and if you cannot spring for both of them, well, maybe drop by your local public library and see if they're available in the Periodical section. Say What? Your public library's hours have been severely cut and not only can you not get to them at a convenient time they've also gutted the periodical section. Damn, Binky, time to get in touch with your local government types and RAISE HELL!.
we'd get buttnekkid for peace... 2.18 although some of ya would rather not witness the event and might mistake us for some wild wooly beastie that belongs in a cage (and truthfully, that is very likely the case). So,
after little field trip this Am, we settled down in the grand salon of l'Marquis' lair and were perusing the
actual newspaper as opposed to visiting the website (where, by the way, they did not publish the images you see
in the paper, but they do provide a link to those & more) and then came across Peace Buffs & for the pics that you cannot see there, well, hie thyselves off to this page of images courtesy BaringWitness.org
Hi! it's ourowndamnwonderfulself again...
& we still happen to be on holiday, thanguvurrymuch...
firstly, yourstruly in company of great pal D. Hawk attended the cinema yesterday afternoon and caught Michael Caine in The Quiet American, which ourself enjoyed more than pal alongside, methinks, but ourself is an unabashed fan of Mr. Caine, so that might explain part of the deal, and we recommend the film to you, goodness knows there are any number of worse choices you could make. On our slow stroll back to the monkeemobile ourowndamnself was
ranting a bit about that kneejerk reaction of many jerks in this country re France & the unwillingness of many French folks to jump on el residente's Beat the Crap out of Iraq bandwagon, and hey, here's our esteemed fellow Hearst Corporation/S.F. Chronicle employee J. Carroll going on about something similiar...
also, just wanted to point you back in direction we pointed sometime last week, good people, doing good work and the kind of thing we know that a lot of you are just waiting for the opportunity to support, my pal L's 16th Street Designs and fellow bloguerrilla CJ's Book Lab, so spread the word and share those links, ourself's got an ancient dictionary we plan on shipping to
CJ, just to see what he might do with it (consider yourself forewarned buddy!) and as for the gals on l'Marquis' shopping list, well, now the katzouttadabag and you'll all
know where your next gift is comink from...
and a happy valentine's day... 2.14
to the dedicated dozen readers & the rest of you as well.
from the bright mind of M. Morford: Whip My Roman Sex Gods. Alright! now whip it, whip it good...
and to our very special friend out there,
(& she know who she be don't she...) this e. e. cummings verse; not sure why/how that comes up in google-ing
for dumbmonkey, but it do, & we appreciate the cozmik wonder that allows that to be so...
ohohohhhh....
yah, we second those emotions! thanks for reminding us, Ms. Armstrong;
and thanks to Riley D, for inspiring our latest tag line:
Nibble Rumps, Don't Wage War clues to this mystery avail in Riley Dog's comments,
more e e cummings here for those who enjoy that kinda thing
buona notte, amici mio... 2.13
enjoyed watching Dinner Rush this evening, & recommend it
highly,
also, we've long admired the fine effort of Mark W., so be certain
to visit wood s lot, he's left a wonderful valentine for all of us there...
increasingly difficult to maintain...
an even strain on one's emotional equilibrium,
particularly in light of much of the news of the day.
yourstruly feels fortunate...
that this little endeavor has allowed him to strike up several acquaintences, a few of
which have blossomed into marvelous friendships, & whilst we've not yet met each & every
one of these newly minted amigos, we've definite intentions this year for some handshaking
and storytelling over a few tall frosty glasses. Want to bring to your attention two endeavors
by two of these comrades & those of you who've frequented this site over the last few years
will recognize both Craig Jensen of BookNotes and Lisa Daly of Ha Ha No Serious as two of
ourowndarnself's favorites. Each of them involved in something new after deciding on major life/career evolution,
Craig's efforts can be seen at BookLab II & whilst there be certain to check out the Portfolio; some of Pal Lisa's efforts can be viewed at 16th Street Designs, a site some of you who occasionally receive mail from yourstruly have already been aware of, we'll mention here what we shared in that message re our purchase of a number of earrings as holiday gifts recently,
each of them lovely & unique items. We encourage you to always support your local (and in this case perhaps not so local) artists & craftsfolk, perhaps the recipients of your generous nature will be as pleased & happy with
their gifts as those on ours were. oh, and by the way, recent addition to the Get Your War On series,
just noticed it ourselves this Am, GYWO 2.10.03
later that same day... 2.12 not sure we've located
troublesome leak in roof of cottage located here at l'Marquis' manor, these things often difficult to pin down, unless the damage to the roofing material is terribly obvious and such is not the case here, yet we appear to be making headway, and with a little luck and perserverance, well, let's just leave it at that & not push our luck. Had occasion to enjoy pleasant lunch earlier, in Oak-town, fave little spot on 7th Street, La Borinqueña Mexi-catessen, yummy beef enchiladas over which we read our local fishwrap, discovering stories that would have
gone along well with the items posted earlier this morning, for example Anti-war Activists Mobilizing in Bay Area, then the related item re Rabbi Lerner controversy, A Mideast Rift in Peace Coalition , followed by story re National Day of Poetry Against the War. Something to do with the essential difference with reading the newspaper as opposed to visiting the web site where the news & feature stories from the newspaper
appear, oftentimes appearing less obviously than they do in actual newsprint, plus the fact yourstruly was tarrying a bit this Am, when he might have got off his duff in a more
timely & efficient manner.
excuse us for asking, but is Your newspaper reporting on the Anti-War efforts or are you simply getting the Administration's line, all the time?
a rainy & breezy reminder that...
winter's not done with us yet. Truthfully though, as wet as it can be on occasion, our winter hereabouts
is lightweight stuff compared to the bitter cold & icy, snowy conditions others trudge onward through. Nice
here though, in the comfy confines of l'Marquis' den, with cozy fire going and hot cuppa alongside...
first item of chewy linky goodness to pass along, from the Village Voice, Pazz & Jop 2002 with Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as Album of the Year;
and taken note of via esteemed laborers in the blogging vineyard g. coale & jessamyn, Poets Against the War (also noted whilst visiting others so
please forgive our not mentioning everybody providing linkage to that site)
earlier this Am visited American Samizdat where we found mention of something afoot in swinging London town (Yo! Tony B! You paying attention?- and as for those of us here stateside, how about something along those numbers for 4 July in Washington D.C.???); also took note
of very interesting little item re impeaching a certain white house resident (and oh, don't we wish it could be so...);
back to music (sort of) item by M. Morford directed to the ever-reamed consumer,
and roundaboutly back to the efforts against the Invasion & War on Iraq, there are lots of things
going on in a lot of different places, you can check here to see some of what's available out there, be sure to submit an item
you may be aware of if you don't see it available on the list. okay now, a little break in the clouds, some errands to run, maybe we back here later with more, but for now, you could do a lot worse than take a few
minutes to visit some of the folks allied here and yessss, to you astute few out there, the fact we need to update and add a few new conscripts to the list is not lost upon us, l'Marquis is often a lazy sluggard, despite the willing minions at his service, so patience, my pretties, patience...
and the trouble with... 2.11 this idea for new reality based tv series is that
the best candidate to star's already in the white house... and it looks like he ain't going anywhere soon...
he knows we ain't been...
holding our breath, nevertheless, we happy to see
some life in the ol' dog S. Baum & the low heeled spark of
some activity over at Ethel the Blog been way too long, we've missed his curmudgeonly ways...
btw, also lots of excellent & timely linkage over at gordon.coale; hie theyselves there next...
Long Live the Badgerman... 2.7
the esteemed multi-instrumentalist & model for 70's
style polyester leisure wear David Lindley's in the city
for a show at the Fillmore on Saturday night.
Nice item by Joel Selvin in today's S.F. Chronicle available here. hmmmmm...
like to find that Cooder & Lindley live set ourowndamnself...
a variation on a theme... 2.6
oh, you know, you seen those pictures of dogs playing poker?
many thanks to esteemed amigos from the other coast,
for lovely gift of The Monkey in Art by Ptolemy Tompkins. no, we kid you not...
occasionally it is best that... 2.5
some of l'marquis's sources remain unidentified,
it might prove too large an embarassment to live down, otherwise.
so from a source who'll remain unnamed, Victory of the Loud Little Handful. ahhhhh, what would Mr. Clemens be writing of these days...
the longer we remain convinced we are without alternative...
to going to war, to accept that the administration's decision is a fait accompli, that simple subjugation of
our beliefs means that they have won, they have manipulated us to the degree that we are hamstrung by our hopelessness. yourstruly thinks that there is yet much opportunity to remind the powers that be that the majority of us are not in agreement with their rush to wage this new war, more of us should continue to speak out, write letters, attend demonstrations, march shoulder to shoulder in alliance with the thousands of others who've already begun to advocate the pursuit of an alternate policy. Do not allow yourself to become defeatist, continue to speak up, continue confronting friends and family members with this issue, continue to do all that you can possibly do to restore balance & equity to the discussion. Here, from Robert Scheer, Justifying Going to War on a Lie; Molly Ivins (ohhhh, how I love Molly I.), Dubya's Doublespeak; S.F. Chronicle's Tom Meyer, Why Did You Let a German Load the Slides; from the Village Voice On-Line, Dying For War. Want to start simply? Email the bastards
if honesty is the best policy...
isn't it tragic the current administration doesn't believe so?
very interesting news story from the Guardian UK, No casus belli? Invent one!
somewhere, lost in the haze... 2.4
that yourstruly existed in for most of the last week, we had occasion to seek out some info on a couple of items, and whilst doing so, ran across a couple of interesting things, such as this Brookings Institution page, which leads to this list of endeavors, these all the more interesting to ourowndamnself as we certainly intend to see how the current administration comports itself in regard to it's own dedication & pursuit of these seemingly worthy endeavors. One another item we ran across yesterday, certainly a very timely one, is from the Atlantic On-line, a review of el residente's recent State of the Union speech which includes imbedded links w/commentary & criticism of a number of items in the speech.
Yourstruly would like to get back to this next subject
later, as it is weighing on our monkeymind somewhat, yet
allow us first to posit this inquiry. Do you know how many
deaths have occurred to U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan since the inception of Operation Enduring Freedom (keeeeerist, what a moniker...)? Are each and every one of those deaths also worthy of the attention of
good Amerikhans everywhere, perhaps even a salutary visit by el residente to one or another of their funerals.
The disaster that befell seven fine individuals recently is certainly a tragedy, hugely unfortunate & sad, no doubt, but
doesn't this canonization to something approaching American Sainthood bother any of you? We went searching for
some clue as to the numbers of dead Amerikhans in Afghanistan recently and discovering a couple of things: this recent news story; this set of statistics dated 6.16.02; then these other numbers, as of Feb 4, '03, okay, enough already for the moment. What we getting at here, and probably not doing a very good job of it, is don't these folks deserve a picture on the front page, and a bio relating their accomplishments, some special memorial day or
event in their honor, or has their sacrifice been somehow less noble, less of a tragedy?
ourself, we don't know, these days, we're easily confused...
Postscript: oddly enough, in the amount of time it took yourstruly to leave chez d'monquis & arrive on the j-o-b,
that last link above seems to have gone south, the one that points to a CDI site/document. It still shows up as a result on this google search, yet as an inoperative link. well, damn, we is stymied. Anyway, some names & faces of the unfortunates who've made the ultimate sacrifice here, courtesy ABC News.
Later Update (3 hrs on) that link appears ok now...
Postscript numero dos: ahhh, as we mentioned above, we'll be paying attention to the shenanigans of the present administration in re to that list of government's Greatest Endeavors, why just noticed this morning, in relation to #24 on the list, there's this news about the Sierra Nevada
it's alive, Alive... A L I V E . . . 2.3
hak coughcough hackhack... ... p-tui...
yah, kind of, and excuse the yuckiness, yeeeeeesh...
first, someone who does this kind of thing much more interestingly
than ourowndamnself could ever think of doing, Jon Carroll;
oh yahhh, we wanted to be there, but we felt too lousy, Burning Stars, Berkeley's Anti-War concert;
back on 1.17, we mentioned debate at U.C. between C. Hitchens and
M. Danner, which we unfortunately didn't attend either (damn,
what is WRONG with us?), but just for folks like us, the
debate's permanently (hah!) archived here;
okay katz & kitteez, very likely more later, cheers!
the "more later"...
wha..? already?
thou shouldst hie theyself off to read G. Armstrong,
bless her wonderfulness for taking the time to put
into words what l'Marquis has often found himself thinking...
and then even mo' later...
H. Sorensen, from the S.F. Chronicle, Lilly White Lies;
some might imagine l'Marquis believes in
providing equal time for opposing viewpoints,
but the truth is he be posting this item simply because
he finds it hard to believe that fellow is not joking...
mounting evidence of mental instability that became January
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