not much rain around here of late... 1.30.07
and folks are starting to get a little concerned.
There was well over 3" of rainfall at this time last year.
alright, am here and now, albeit briefly, might get busy 'round here later on, and in a good way.
To meine freund in the Southland, in homage to her Sunday Vegetarian Menu Cook-a-thon posts, courtesy the Fine Mind that was Frank Zappa's,
Call Any Vegetable. Here one of my longtime favorite authors, ever since I had the pleasure of picking up the Esquire magazine of my mid twenties which contained his wonderful novella "Legends of the Fall";
Jim Harrison, Pleasures of the Hard-Worn Life, courtesy the NYT Books section.
think I would've been right at home with the gang on that Zappa album
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a bit of rain overnite on friday... 1.28.07
then underneath occasionally cloudy skies yesterday and this morning,
bestowing a lovely kind of freshness in the air upon bay area residents.
a few sentences from a Gary Shandling profile in the NYT: Perhaps appropriately, the four discs end with Mr. Shandling
in idle conversation with a Vietnamese monk, who is seeking
to explain the meaning of a particular Buddhist statue.
“So always extend compassion,” Mr. Shandling is heard saying to the monk, Hanh Nguyen, who interrupts him to add, “Love and compassion to all sentient beings.”
“Even for the enemy,” Mr. Shandling adds, sounding like a post-enlightenment Larry.
The monk responds: “Sure. The true enemy is ignorance.”
(oncet upon a time, my hair assumed Shandlingesqe proportions, largely by accident rather than design, believe me. Funny thing to be at the playground with the kids and all their pals would tell me "you look like that guy on TV!" Ok... ahhh... thanks) and remember, ye katz und kitteez,
use BugMeNot to avoid any pesky registration issues...
meeting up with Janey & Phillipe again later this day, some caterwauling is guaranteed to ensue. There is a rumour going around that the long anticipated meeting between el chango tonto and a certain bookish type might take place in February. Anyone else interested in a visit at that time should understand that C.J. has already asserted futon rights. Still plenty of floor space in the living room. It could be one big jolly party especially if other instruments show up, I know Phillipe would be game...
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creeps us on us all, doesn't it... 1.25.07
sometimes I am at ease with it, but when I glance in the mirror and see my ol' dad's face looking back at me, I think "where the fuck have those years gone"...
late night TV again (& honestly, if yourstruly was a cable subscriber likely would have been watching something else, but who knows, became so captivated by the course of the interview I missed seeing Rosanne Cash on the Late Show), Charlie Rose invested his entire hour in an interview with John Burns (whose work & perserverance I esteem very highly) and it was a hugely illuminatiing discription of certain realities in Iraq from someone who (as far as I know) has spent many years in Iraq and does not carry a gun (security of one sort or another, perhaps...) ANYWAY...
charlierose.com is new on the block in some sense, you used to access c. rose via the PBS website and there ye will see the show spoken about earlier. Initially I searched for the episode via google and discovered show available there from Nov. 2003, and it seemed indisputable proof what more than three years in Iraq can do to a man. Seriously, 'tis worth the small effort it might take to see the interview, check your PBS listings as it often be re-broadcast the following day. Oh, and Hey John! Nice hair, man...
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d'monkey idiotbox programming notes... 1.24.07
up late once again and watching my local PBS outlet, series called Independent Lens,
last night's program, Beyond The Call, about three truly remarkable & committed individuals. These guys put to shame the entire dispicable charade that the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq & Afghanistan has been. Not only are they putting their money (along with monies raised) on the line, they are out there in person, putting their own asses on the line. I'll apologize for losing quality linky bit re the dicey economic footing that the majority of us face, I'll keep looking for it tho'...
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out early on a cool sunny sunday morning in late January... 1.21.07
 and after gassing up the old blue subaru and taking care of a couple of errands, I returned home and whilst taking part in more mundane activities noticed the NYT item on Mr. & Mrs R. Crumb. Hmmm... maybe I should sell off the Albany estate and look seriously into the expat lifestyle. There is that bothersome "how to best support oneself" question to deal with. Photo on right there copped from audio slideshow linked to via the story, dear Robert & Aline have gotten a bit longer in the tooth (Robert looking every bit his age these days...) since that photo was taken. Check out that slideshow with info on Aline's new book, plus some photos of where R & A are spending their days of late.
Appears Mr. D'Souza has revealed himself to be the reprehensible asshole I always thought he was. Here a few items in re D'Souza: The Unmitigated Gall of Dinesh D'Souza; Incendiary, from 1.14 WaPo; 'Calling out Dinesh D'souza', Esquire book review, via Sivacracy.net. Basta, enough...
sorry, cannot resist sharing this snarky swipe at Apple iproduct.
y finalmente, beware the Flying Baby!
adios, amigos...
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wowiegazowies... 1.19.07
from the pages of S.F. Chronicle/SF Gate, behold the Proteus;
a little more about that spidery marvel here and here.
alright, back to the cruel reality of the here and now. Am sure many of you are aware that our recently elected democratic majority house members are patting themselves on the back after the "success" of their Hundred Day strategem. One reason why yourstruly has One Thousand Reasons on the top of the list over there on the right is because you can (for example) check out an item like the one from the Boston Globe regarding House Democrats beating the clock, but the clever thing to notice is that beneath each post on the page there is a link denoted "Take Action", that will allow you opportunity to email members of Congress. Feckin' Brilliant!
otra cosa mas, y me voy...
if ye happen to be in the Memphis TN environs sometime during February 1st and 3rd,
ye might want to check out The World's Largest Gathering of Blues Bands.
seems it's always late at night...
that I see television programming really worth hearing about. I wonder how many folk (locally) chose to watch KQED (PBS) last night and see Telling the Truth: The Best in Broadcast Journalism. Some information about this year's awards available here, and it appears that many of you will still have opportunity to view the program according to schedule provided on that page.
Personally, the powers that be at the three major broadcast networks should make time available to air some of these worthy programs, then of course one would have to hope people would choose to see something that might challenge their way of thinking, instead of settling for the usual pap. Yah, sure, Baghdad ER isn't pleasant to watch, but if most of this country had the opportunity to see something like it three years ago (instead of only those folks who have cable TV and subscribe to HBO), perhaps, just perhaps, it might have made some difference. Okay, Binky, you right, that just be wishful thinkin'...
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whilst standing and perusing posted flyers at the laundromat... 1.18.07
this morning, poster for the S.F. Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival (the 8th annual, by the way) caught mine eyes. Discovered small pile of booklets nearby and brought one home. Once I finished hanging out the wet laundry, I took a closer look at what is coming our way February 1st thru the 10th, at a number of venues. By the way, this festival has naught to do with that other bluegrass festival (the hardly strictly bluegrass one...) that usually takes place in October. Downloadable info and more available at sfbluegrass.org. Very reasonable ticket prices, all shows are in either S.F. or Berkeley, OH, whoopsies, there is one show scheduled at McGrath's Pub in Alameda. Nice thing to discover in the booklet was list of Jams and Shows held on regular basis at a number of different places. Couple of other websites to mention alongside this, N.Ca. Bluegrass Society (where you'll find a link to the Bluegrass Blog) and cbaontheweb.org. Toss this next URL in there too, amigo, out of our own collection of musical linky bits, iBluegrass.com, and lastly, jessferdahalibut and as we be talkin' music anyways, deadstein's music list. Go on, now, grab your guitar and have fun...
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is that a burning cel-phone in your pocket... 1.16.07
or are you just glad to see me, babee?
Talk about not having a very good day, wake up and find yourself afire? Yeeessshhhh...
So, what's the happz, Binky? Cold in your neighborhood? Still damned chilly 'round here, tho' - thank the goddess - we
haven't been visited by ice storms or freaking sub-zero temps.
I was imagining someone in Fargo reading the 1.13 post and
thinking "fuck that guy, it's eight degrees here." and then thought to myself the question that person has likely asked theirveryowndamnedself many times, "well smartyboots, what the fuck are you still doing in Fargo?"
Been meaning to mention this for some time now, having seen the film twice, albeit once being on an enormous wide screen telly in very clean I.D. format (illegally downloaded). You really ought to consider seeing "Children of Men". Oh, I've seen "Babel" and I've seen "Little Miss Sunshine", seen "The Fountain", seen a bunch of 'em out there, but in l'Marquis' not so humble opinion, "Children of Men" is pretty damned close to a masterpiece. And see the damned thing in a theatre, okay, otherwise you might miss something you ought not to, considering the work as a whole. Charlie Rose (not my favorite interviewer/talk show personality) had an interesting show some weeks ago, featuring three directors, all Mexican, who are making some of the more interesting films of the last few years: Alfonso Cuaron (director of C.O.M.), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), and Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth). Matter of fact (thank the google-goddess), that show is available for your perusal at this link right here (watch out for the occasional ad). Would also be a pretty good idea to see those other very interesting films, katz und kitteez. Kudos to Senor Inarritu for taking home the Golden Globe last night for "Babel".
In an attempt to appease the gods of winter, yourstuly rolled the Weber out of the garage and after cleaning it, fired it up in preparation for nice big pre-marinated (Trader Joe product) hunk-a-beef brought over by pals Janey & Phil. Plenty of coals on one side of the grill, the beef on the other, lid on top and both vents wide open and something like two & 1/2 hours later, mmmm mmmm mmmm.  Yummy, lovely dinner with some polenta alongside and fine salad that went along with another couple of hours worth of guitar playing and harmonizing, no recording equipment around this time as it was intended to be a smaller, more casual kind of affair. Phil did bring over a CD of the four tunes recorded the afternoon of Dec 17th, which was a pleasant surprise due to two reasons, it was very listenable and I'd forgotten that we'd recorded a couple of tunes in particular. Those of ye on the d'monkey mailing list might find a new year's gift in yer mailbox sometime soon,
think of it as a harbinger of spring...
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it was goddamned chilly last night... 1.13.07
and it doesn't matter to me if you've been snowed under since before xmas or that a blizzard might be wreaking havoc outside your door presently, all I can attest to here and now is that it is quite chilly hereabouts of late. You might have seen news headlines about the possiblity of damaged crops in California due to the huge mass of frigid air that has moved into the state over the last couple of days and the likelihood of higher prices for some of those goodies in days to come. Last night was forecast as the coldest here in the S.F. Bay area, and yourstruly hopes that is the case, even though we ought not expect anything resembling normalcy temperature wise for the better part of the week to come. Can you say bowl of hot oatmeal, Binky?
Ah, yes the return of l'Marquis (or whomever/whatever). You see those headlines these days don't ye? More troops, MORE money, and undoubtedly more dead soldiers and civilians, some of whom may not be innocent. I spent some time looking over some entries of d'monkey past, oh three years ago mostly, when something like 60% of my fellow americans supported the imbecilic war in Iraq. That fucking chicken's come home to roost, hasn't it? Big ugly motherfucker it is too, if ye ask me, oh, but let us not dwell on that now, okay? The look around here is slightly modified layout of Dec. of two years ago, and if I can stay warm enough and self-motivated enough and skirt the chasms of self-pity, self-doubt, self-criticism (& let's not forget self-abuse!) often enough, I might just continue to plug along here for some more little while. 
Well, I will mention one little thing here about the political climate we find ourselves in of late, this would be an AWFULLY GOOD TIME to begin WRITING LETTERS TO YOUR CONGRESSFOLK and SENATORS, and Tell Your Friends. Are you a churchgoer? An active member of your congregation or glee club (that was me last night, a bowlful - or two - of the pause that refresheth, a bottle of whiskey, a bowl of hot soup and cornbread alongside, and the heater on, mine own Early January Ought-7 Dumbmonkey Glee Club and I will tell ye, we wuz gleeful like a mofo as, ye see, t'was l'Marquis' birthday this week...) or book group or bowling league or ??? Encourage your friends and family & yourowndamnedself to write letters, write lots and lots of letters, make certain you are making the most of any opportunity afforded ye to let those fuckers in Washington know you're paying attention.
There are some other things I want to get around to mentioning, you'll (no doubt) patiently allow me to regain my bearings here in the new year, but if you've not taken note of it already, that other bloggin' John from the S.F. Bay area has changed his locale, so to speak; you can find Information Junque AKA Footprints here these days. For those Richard Thompson fans out there, ran across this fansite the other day, not
certain the .doc file there actually works (hasn't yet for me) but ye will find a bunch of R.T. songs & chords there & alongside that, there's this olde linky bit...
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~ ~ ~ ~ ~
and with another year behind us, december '06
fades into memory until the credit card bills show up...
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