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7.29.00
on this day we bid you Happy Dragon Day
while we celebrate the Festival of the Polymorphously Perverse...
sharing this fine old Fleetwood Mac track
patience, my little pretties, patience...
~ ~ ~
a serendipitous moment at chez dumbmonkey
this Am whilst performing household chores, listening to neil young,
perusing fave blogs & sites, found this re neil on tour,
watch out for the scary pic of neil looking like he just did 20 in Lompoc...
7.28.00
continuing in the spirit of the day
HA HA No Serious
~ ~ ~
more silliness, courtesy Desipio
~ ~ ~
aayyiiiii!!! it's Friday Follies!
Lab of Evil Science
scrubots
the gist of it
Invaders from Another Womb
parodies & pastiches
x-rising parodies
G & S parodies
yesssss, you can run, but you cannot hide...
7.27.00
Quills
appears that Phil Kaufman has something new in the works for us,
as this piece from Salon describes, based on the play by the same name.
Tiny bit more about the film here & here.
oooh, those kate winslet fans are ready for this one...
96 days and counting
before the start of the 2000/01 NBA Season,
& Lakers start at Portland on 10/31
yah, despite the WNBA, dumbmonkey is jonesing big-time...
~ ~ ~
one of the dumbmonkey's all time favorite films
is Un Coeur en Hiver (A Heart in Winter), w/ the incomparably beautiful Emmanuelle Béart and the wonderful actor Daniel Auteuil. You may have also seen in them in Jean De Florette & Manon of the Spring, both of which we highly recommend if you've not seen them. What brings this up though, is our discovery of this news item re the death of Claude Sautet, whose career covered several decades and a number of marvelous films, including A Heart in Winter. The majority of the more informative sites re Mr. Sautet are in French, so perhaps Babelfish can roughly translate the content for those of us at a disadvantage, language-wise, but the IMDB does have this information available.
7.26.00
tip o' the ol'red fez
to John, of Footprints, for sharing this link
now that the secret's out,
y'all had better just capitulate, & we'll go easy on ya...
~ ~ ~
by Nicholson Baker, the essay is "DeadLine"
excerpt from the 7.24 issue of The New Yorker
The World Telegram's pages have yellowed, especially at the outer margins, where light and air have penetrated, but they are whole and sound. You can open this magnificent public diary without harming it, you can turn its pages without troubles; you can peruse it with a moment's pleasure or a day's fascination. Joseph Mitchell, who was already freelancing at The New Yorker, writes about Emma Goldman, in the United States after years of exile. "The anarchist wore a snakeskin print dress and a Paisley shawl," he writes, and a photo confirms it. A.J. Liebling, another World Telegram writer, gets a color-quote from a cabbie while covering a violent taxi strike: "I come first. The customer comes second, and I don't care if you miss your train, mister." Heywood Broun prints a letter he got from Robert Benchley. Gretta Palmer, on the woman's page, says that the speakeasy ended the male-only bar, but that segregation is returning: "Don't the men like us any more now that their judgement is unclouded by the gasoline in the old-fashioned gin?" In a sports section, a huge cartoon has Robert Moses, the new city parks commissioner, hitting a hole in one, because he has promised to spruce up the city's golf courses. And on February 22nd there is a nice anonymous lead--maybe by Liebling again?--on page 1: "Miss Florence La Bau, an alumna of Goucher College and Columbia University, a young woman of wealth and social position in Ridgewood, N.J., was doing a fourth mate's job on the freighter Wichita when the ship plodded into port today with a cargo of human hair from China, tea from Formosa, silk from Japan, sugar from the Philippines and two strange bears from the mystery land of Tibet." Reading a paper like this is not the only way to understand the lost past life of a city, but no other way will enclose you so completely within one time stratum's universe of miscellaneous possibility. Nothing makes an amateur historian of you with more dispatch.
this marvelous piece about libraries, vintage newspapers & human history
should not be missed. Go get yourself an issue and enjoy...
life can occasionally be awfully grim
& this is one reason why the dumbmonkey indulges in silly stuff like the friday follies and attempting to seek out the more frivolous
& lighthearted kinds of things, in some effort to allay that ever-constant reality of the pain, heartache & sorrow which is companion to the joys & beauty of existence. Perhaps it is simply being sort of a "victim" of media overexposure (we work at a major newspaper after all), but every now & again we get this feeling that bad things predominate, and that it's getting worse, not better, & that it may be time to high-tail it out to the mountain hide-out, not that it would change anything other than our being too aware of how chancey life has become. We had included this link re air disasters on our initial foray onto the information expressway, before becoming the blogger known as the dumbmonkey, along w/a few other travel related links. Having actually only earlier this year become re-aquainted w/air travel (something like a 10 year hiatus since we were last on an airline) we were shocked & dismayed by the treatment of passengers as a herd of flesh, packed tightly & uncomfortably into planes, hurried & casual care by the attendants, and the absolute zoo that airports have become, hardly what one might describe as civilized. the dumbmonkey has always been very fond of train travel, & enjoys having the luxury of time available on any holiday to indulge in this less-hurried manner of travel, but is also aware of some recent rail accidents, altho, still somewhat less disastrous than falling several thousand feet out of the sky, our good fortune has been (so far) such that nothing more terrible than the occasional delay/late arrival has impeded our travels by rail. ya know,
ya pays yer money & ya takes yer chances, right?
ennnywayz, we gonna post some train travel related stuff here, in case you have opportunity to revise your future travel plans enough to include the possiblity of some rail travel. Amtrack in now offering Acela, on the east coast, &, for the more adventurous among us, a wonderful holiday could be had combining ferrys & trains in Alaska. One might think of making like Michael Palin and attempt going around the world by rail; personally we are contemplating a month or two of travel in Europe perhaps as soon as next spring, no doubt utilizing the rail travel infrastructure available there. Visit the lands of fjords & blondes by rail in Norway, Those of you who know the dumbmonkey on a more personal level understand why we might consider rail travel in Poland (& we cannot think of any applicable jokes to insert here unfortunately). Geezzzz, the possiblilities are nearly endless: Holland, Paris, Italy, even a passage on the Coast Starlight can be an enjoyable way to get up & down the left coast.
7.25.00
you mean besides sticky keyboards?
some risks of internet sex
~ ~ ~
Nader on role as spoiler
inteviewed by Leonora Todaro in the Village Voice
more new blips on dumbmonkey blog-radar
surprise!?!
Leche
warped visions
think sprink
& thanks to the team of Pat & Elise for pointing out
photodude's weblog
~ ~ ~
& we'd like to mention Peter Hessler's piece in the 7.24 New Yorker, 'bout the joys of eating rat, large & small, & some delicacy referred to as Longfu Soup, which contains tiger (cat), dragon (snake), & phoenix (chicken). Mmmmmmm Mmmmmm Good!
here's some additional goodies from Peter Hessler:
A Church, A Glacier, and a Bridge
Storehouse of Tibetan Culture
7.24.00
danger will robinson!
reciprocal link ahead
tip o'the ol'red fez to the esteemed E. the blog
& by the way,
a fitting tribute to Mr. Reisner would be to read his book
~ ~ ~
oh my, my, my, imagine our surprise
upon reading of Marc Reisner's death. Here's obit from today's Chron,
we'll include this obit from the L.A. Times, & then, as a minor tribute,
we'll re-post our 5.26 entry, which he inspired:
water, cool, clear, water...
Cadillac Desert had probably been in print five years before we got around to reading it, & we were reminded of how profoundly we were affected by it when we came across this link. The thought of Reisner's book inspired the recollection of a (somewhat inadequate) public television multi-part series, which admittedly was challenged by the scope & depth of the book. Link here to see Marc Reisner's talk at '99 CU "State of the World Conference" (he appears approx 17 mins into the video) w/more by Reisner here; by others we'll include this essay from '98 on federal water managmement; this short item from Dec. '99; this from this week's L.A. Times; initially, this appears an unusual source for an article of this depth, but perhaps there's more than meets the eye in Vegaz, it is a desert community after all, we tell ourselves, and are reminded to stop & consider how casually we think of water, how vital it is to all of us, whether we live in a desert or not...
damn, the guy was only 51...
apologies for any broken linkage
breaking L.A. in Two
will the S.F. Valley secede?
ahhhhh, things have returned to some semblance of normalcy here,
w/our services not currently required at crack of dawn Am,
so we're allowed a leisurely Monday post...
enjoyed a very fine Sunday Am, produce shopping in Oak-town Chinatown,
and a lovely dim sum brekkie,
enjoyed an afternoon matinee at the Albany where we saw Shower,
then simply chilled away the rest of the afternoon & evening, a very lazy Sunday.
(we deserved it after 3 consecutive weeks of early AMs and lengthy on the J-O-B hours)...
 while watching some TV that same evening we came across local station (San Jose's KICU 36) broadcasting the Wachowski Bros' Bound. Now, may be possible you've seen this film, so you know it has a lot going for it, but what was broadcast last nite was a travesty, & it wasn't just because all the best yummy parts were missing, what we are talking about is that almost all of the violence in the film was left intact with very little of the huggin'/kissin' yummy stuff. Why is this the norm? Wouldn't the world be a better place with MORE huggin', kissin' yummy stuff going on than folks pumping bullets into each other? we'd much rather have our children (eeeeeek, that's a scary thought) catching a glimpse of two women kissing & embracing passionately than seeing bullets colliding with flesh. so, why'd we continue to watch? well, the pleasure of seeing some fine actors, a well scripted story including some hi-jinks & tense moments; even eviscerated, it was still compelling viewing, but the shameful thing is the willingness to prefer inclusion of the portrayal of violent action as opposed to anything remotely sexual. This wasn't being broadcast at 6 in the afternoon & most parents would likely have been able to decide for themselves whether or not they would allow their family to watch Gina & Jenny heat up the telly-screen, but for our money (& we LIKEZ our money) we'd rather there was more of the yummy stuff and a LOT less of that soul destroying violence. c'mon, what would you rather see? ahh, shit,
like our little rant here is gonna make ANY difference at all...
& now, duty calls, & we be heading to the city across the bay...
7.22.00
HOLY BOY! we give up...
dumbmonkey can barely keep up with these gadgets,
first our Bro K told us about this one, & we read about this one earlier this week,
and now we learn about the Nomad JukeBox
~ ~ ~
whoa! who'd a' thought so many'd miss the mutt
s'okay,
this list from Vice
& there's a
new moon discovered around Jupiter
~ ~ ~
allright! jess fer da halibut...
the Fab 4 in the studio
now get outa there and go out and have some FUN...
whoops!
dumb, or what?
~ ~ ~
road trip blues
tough going on the grapevine
~ ~ ~
yah, we agree, we makin' too much noise
& maybe we take the opportunity to listen more carefully,
when we can, to those sounds of nature
~ ~ ~
sometimes, if we're fortunate enough,
we are given the opportunity to realize the importance of something that we take for granted. These two stories have sports (& basketball) as part of the backround, but they are really about something else: first, Danny Ainge's decision to leave coaching NBA ball,
and Rudy Martin's choice to leave Columbine H.S.
Yah, we agree, the reasons are quite different, & in Coach Martin's case, certainly affected by the great & terrible tragedies that have taken place in Columbine. Would it be possible that we could continue on, after the horror of April 20th, continuing to work & teach there, or would the memory of that day overwhelm us. A better thing, certainly, to come to the decision to pay closer attention to one's family and loved ones independently, & not as a response to tragedy or loss, but it just doesn't happen that way very often, usually it is too late (or nearly so) when that comprehension dawns. Our decision was not to leave a coaching position or, for that matter, to leave anything at all, but the recent deaths of some dear friends did put emphasis on realizing the importance of our family & friends, even in the simplest of terms, to listen more carefully when conversing w/any of them, to be more appreciative of their presence in our life, especially the youngest of them. Life's short, really, & so much of our time is consumed in the frivolous & meaningless, and that is so often unrealized, until the one day that friend is no longer there, or you know w/certainty the opportunity is lost & not to be regained.
7.21.00
mercilessly, while bystanders recoil in horror,
dumbmonkey once again unveils Friday Follies...
koffee kartoons
cartoons galore
aardvarkhumor.com
cartoovie.com
somebody's cartoon page
Insect Publications
Royston Robertson
inclusion of any link in Friday Follies does NOT imply the dumbmonkey thinks highly
(or anything at all) of the content on linked site, it is simply his twisted & inelegant attempt
to provide fodder & content on a busy morning. Thank You
7.20.00
farewell to the chalupa loving chihuaha...
presented, w/apologies, this wee tale
from the Grey Lady
the MP3 player & related notes
~ ~ ~
news on the Chandler Wobble front
this NASA news release posits a discovery of the cause of the phenomena, briefly explained here, we'll include this link to the International Earth Rotation Service (could we order a little additional rotation on january 10th please?) which is mentioned in the news release. Now that serious headway has been made in explaining the wobble,
maybe we'll be able to sleep better at night...
7.19.00
tonite's West Wing re-run & Martin Sheen
whoopsies
~ ~ ~
are you having a tough time finding quality DVD titles
to rent? Your local video emporium not willing to take a chance on Indy & World cinema? Received the following link via Media Nugget of the Day: NetFlix.com appears to have a substantial title inventory (is it backed up w/real availability?) & it isn't TOO exorbitant a monthly fee, considering what they claim to offer. We're fortunate that in our neighborhood we have a couple of options in terms of locations & substantial title inventories to choose from, but we know if we were living somewhere in the hinterlands we'd be jonesing for the opportunity to see some of the films we only get to read about.
ugh, dumbmonkey didn't get enough of something that starts w/S last nite
& no, it's sleep we're speaking about here. Perhaps we didn't acheive the required levels of muscle atonia in what slumber we had; perhaps it's what we are accomplishing (or more likely- NOT accomplishing) in our waking hours that is somehow preventing us from slumbering soundly; or possibly we should listen to some music to prepare for & encourage restful slumber. We'll leave you with this quote: "The more active the mind, the greater the necessity for sleep." - Dr. E.H. Clarke, Sex in Education (1872), 'cause we WAY tired and that second cuppa is calling us. Enjoy your day
7.18.00
the dumbmonkey hasn't visited Mr. Wagoner recently
& used to visit often, glad we stopped by today so we could share his Sunday post
y'all know what a spacecase the dumbmonkey is
& it's stuff like this that gives us un petit frisson whenever we run into it,
caught the news item at the MonkeyShinesNBC site
& here's some more on the IPAC @ CalTech
more new blips on blog radar
new to the dumbmonkey, at least...
not so soft
awol
whatever
lukelog
~ ~ ~
powerful force of nature still not well understood
although plenty of effort going into the
Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study
to better comprehend the whys and wherefores.
~ ~ ~
really attached to your old AC-DC t-shirt?
now's the time to dig out your collection of arena rock Tees
~ ~ ~
Les Freres Coen
Joel & Ethan's first film, Blood Simple, is currently in re-release, & if you've never seen it, or perhaps only on video, do yourself a favor & catch it while you can. The pair have made some marvelous films, & we're awaiting the opportunity to see their latest. Our personal fave, oh, probably The Big Lebowski w/Jeff Bridges.
duuuuuude!
7.17.00
big props to dumbmonkey's Popz
for setting us straight about the cartoon character we mentioned in earlier post, Joe Bfstplk, who was actually in Lil' Abner, not Snuffy Smith (can't keep my hillbillies apart & that's a shameful thing for a dumbmonkey born in Kentucky to admit). Muchas Gracias, Popz!
spent a couple of hours in the company of Fuckhead
yesterday, the character protrayed by Billy Crudup in Jesus' Son, a fine indy picture directed w/a sure & patient hand by Alison Mclean. Screenplay is based on book of short stories by Denis Johnson, an author we have little familiarity with. We enjoyed hanging out w/Fuckhead, although am personally thankful there is no one like this character in our life, reminded me of a character from old time comic read during our young monkeyhood, we think the character's name was Joe Btseflk (???) out of the Snuffy Smith cartoon, fellow always had this "black cloud" over his head, same thing seems to follow our friend though some tough times. There's also a fine young actress at work in the film, Samantha Morton, that link may provide reminder of where you may have seen her before. Not likely that Jesus's Son is going to be widely distributed, but if you get the chance, we recommend it highly.
monday, monday... kinda off balance this Am, took BART into the city as my hours kinda odd this week, & we be outa the office by 2:30, nearly 2 hours before the first bus back to Albany, so we using the monkeymobile to BART & back home. Here's something from the London Times that has made my morning a little more pleasant,
a tour of the Tate Modern
7.16.00
"life may be sweeter than this, I don't know,
see how it feels in the end..."
hmmmmm, slept in this Am, had a very fine Saturday spent w/faitful poochster & later in day with Brother K & Lady Liz-Beth & kinder, Leala, K. Jr. & the Becky-Monster, & not a Deadhead, but listening a lot lately to Dick's Picks #17 & enjoying the helloutavit...
(any interested can find more info at deadhead central)
the six of us enjoyed a matinee of X-Men, which is a lot of the typical summertime fluff, but somewhat reedeemed by their casting of the fellow in the Wolverine role (couldn't find our old Woverine T-shirt to wear yesterday & man, was the dumbmonkey bummed...) altho there was that occasional "clinteastwoody" thing he seemed to be doing, & it was a great pleasure to see Anna Paquin on screen, got my heart going pit-a-pat a little bit, we happily recall her onscreen moments as Flora in The Piano years ago, spewing curses & invective, petulant & angry w/her mother's wilfulness, every other word a "bloody...". So, spectacle galore in terms of nicely done CGI work, long on style, short on substance, but enjoyably done, without pretentions to anything grander than summer entertainment.
~ ~ ~
we stumbled across the NYT Navigator this Am, not sure of how "new" it really is, but have spent enough time perusing the NYT on-line that we are surprised that we didn't see it before. In a similiar vein, we came across AssignmentEditor.com whilst bored to tears performing counter duty at the SFNA classified's counter last week. We were seeking a particular column by Molly Ivins but it appears the newspaper she is listed as a columnist for doesn't maintain an archive of her columns, if anyone out there knows of one,
could you kindly pass it along to us here at the dumbmonkey HQ.
WRONG!!!, the dumbmonkey proves once again the reasons for the choice of moniker for this bloggy-effort, we found the column, but to get it we have to do this & as the dumbmonkey is an entirely voluntary chore, performed w/love & great sacrifice, we cannot countenance PAYING
for the goshdarned thing,
(damn, ol' Jon Carroll's columns are avail FREE!!!)
so we guess we lose out again
(where's that linkinsurance.com when you need 'em???)
~ ~ ~
dear old pal 0' mine heading out for roadtrip on Monday, heading to the Four Corners area, & she spent some time here last nite while we perused some of the info avail web-wise for travel in that part of the country, and we came across Mr. Bertola's pages
devoted to travel in So. Utah. Nice photos & some helpful advice on places to visit should you ever consider traveling in those parts. We wish we hadn't already made our late summer vacation plans so that we could join our pal S. on the highway, but maybe we plan a trip ourselves
out that way next spring.
~ ~ ~
"life may be sweeter than this, I don't know,
feels like it might be alright..."
ooopsies!
for the fans of Junger's book, this interview
7.14.00
celebrating the holiday with a nice French wine,
here's something about what noses know from Ralph
~ ~ ~
and you call yourself a scientist...
rumor in Laker-Land
Jerry West may step down
yesssss, it's that time again
Friday Follies are here again
more dumb & dumber jokes
the comedy zones quotes
a humorous CFS story (?)
& we atheists are a barrel of laughs
funny & so-so funny stuff
cartoons
lastly but not leastly
The Frumious Bandersnatch
7.13.00
from the PBS on-line archive
show's called Savage Seas & appears to have originally been broadcast a year ago (perhaps posted like crazy at that time) & doubtlessly re-promoted due to Perfect Storm in the theatres. we've never been partial to the idea of ascribing tendencies like savagery & cruelty to forces of Nature, as they are simply that, but this site has some good illustrations of meteorological causes of extreme weather & sea phenomena.
~ ~ ~
oooh oooh oooh
whilst gamboling thru the PBS online stuff, we came across this:
American Photography, A Century of Images
statistics & damn lies
one of our counterparts here at Fishwrap Classifieds sought out my assist
in locating some stats on relative sizes of the States of the Union,
& we came across this page of numbers related to costs of cigarette smoking.
sometimes it seems we the only one around
without a cellphone, but if this is what the future holds, it will be tough to hold out.
~ ~ ~
indebted to our Brother K
for passing along link to this new CD gadget.
Seems it's available on pre-order basis & so far we haven't run across any reviews,
if any of you find one send it along to the dumbmonkey, will ya?
~ ~ ~
Frederick's of Hollywood files for bankruptcy
the catalog that fueled millions of boyhood fantasies (BOYHOOD?!) having hard times...
~ ~ ~
some news on the domain name front
this article from the on-line London Times
~ ~ ~
Can you say "agent of cultural change"?
The Pill at 40, courtesy L.A. Times
7.12.00
this is important & you can help
Jon Carroll on books & reading
ah, the simple pleasure of a full night of restful slumber...
~ ~ ~
re: The Croupier
so, we saw this movie
on Saturday, & enjoyed it very much (have no use for cinema involving clay chickens, hollywoodized patriotism or imperfect storms), learned a bit about it afterwards, like it had originally been scheduled for a '97 release, is directed by Mike Hodges, who took great pains to credit the writer, Paul Mayersberg. Here's another review & we're pretty sure neither of the reviews included in this post provide much in the way of spoilers. Our interest was piqued once we learned who directed Croupier as we didn't immediately recall Mr. Hodges, who directed a long-time favorite of ours, Get Carter, from '71 & starring Michael Caine. When Carter was released in the States, we were in the first year of our naval career (HAH!) & stationed in Alameda, Ca., where we viewed the film in the base theatre. It made a memorable impression on us, and it's very likely we became a fan of Mr. Caine at that time. We'll admit this post is sort of M. Caine lovefest, centering on his role in Carter
(SO GET ON WITH IT WILLYA!!!) Here'a a review of Get Carter, courtesy Edinburgh Film Society,
this link to Amazon includes some viewer reviews (otherwise we wouldn't use it AT ALL) of Carter. This interview w/Caine goes back a few years, & fits in here because he addresses his role in Get Carter at some length, & alongside it we'll include an interview w/M. Hodges which (happily enough) includes references to both The Croupier and Get Carter. For a bit of "fun" we're including this list we came across of Director's Top 10 Favorites as it happens to include Mike Hodge's picks.
dumbmonkey has followed Michael Caine's career for many years, particularly enjoys his portrayals of the seamy, slimy types he does so well like the characters he portrayed in Get Carter, Little Voice, and Mona Lisa, but also enjoys his gift for comedy & "gentler" roles, like the lovestruck Elliott in W. Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters. We don't have a "thing" for violent films or any penchant for viewing same, but appreciate those times when you discover fine writing, direction & acting all coming together in the collaborative effort of creating cinema.
interesting reading in this week's Voice
by Richard Goldstein, on Celebrity Bigots
7.11.00
new blips on the blog radar
iceberg 23
sprecken zie Deutsch? fior di n area
detuned radio
my bong runs linux (our runs out!)
these are new to us here at dumbmonkey HQ,
it's getting more difficult each day to keep up w/ newly arrived blogsters...
~ ~ ~
so much for Chronic Optimism
R.I.P. F.M. Esfandiary
~ ~ ~
for fellow silverbacked Laker fans like the 'ol dumbmonkey,
Michael Cooper's middle name is still defense
7.10.00
 the dumbmonkey hasn't been out sailing in a seriously long while, just got too involved with people racing & not doing the cruisey-EZ kind of sailing that became more appealing, but raced many years, and knows about going fast (definitely a relative term in sailing) in ultralight mono-hulls. Don't intend to mislead anybody, s'not like we hardcore, but we know our way around a sailboat. Came across this intro to Club Med in the NYT, looked up a little more about the craft (some fine pictures of the catamaran in the gallery) and found something about the skipper alongside something about the race as well. Quokka Sports also has some coverage of the race & of Club Med amongst the large amount of content they currently have on-line. If you've not had the opportunity to mess about in boats, a lot of this will remain absolutely meaningless to you. It's partly that romance of the sea kind of stuff, and our own admiration for the skill involved & willingness to endure the beating these guys will get in the round the world race that inspires our interest, 'tho we willing to admit we may not have sufficiently sized cojones to go on such a radical jaunt, we would love the opportunity to crew aboard Club Med in S.F. Bay on a blustery summer's day. 31 Knots! you just gotta be kidding me...
dumbmonkey NOT so sure we be celebrating
Nude Recreation Week, (at least outside the privacy of Chez Dumbmonkey)
we too concerned about mosquitos, sunburn &, uhhhh, ohhhhh, nevermind...
~ ~ ~
yah, like this is news...
yep, love always makes dumbmonkey go goofy in a BIG way
~ ~ ~
such a FINE weekend
was had by the dumbmonkey, we remain pleasantly foggy & dazed this AM, & (uggghhh) altho we did have to get our old tired butt into the j-o-b pretty darn early again, we managed to (thanks no doubt to the many years of practice & reliance on what is probably more attributable to muscle/nerve memory than initiative) get out the house, onto the bus & into the office in a timely fashion. So just how good a weekend did we have? Ah, well, we'll expound upon it in a more leisurely fashion in a while, but in the R.D. condensed version: We met up w/ex-sweetie of many years ago, some months had passed since our last luncheon & we made a date to see The Croupier & share a lunch afterwards, both very enjoyable diversions. On Sunday, the dumbmonkey was joined by the Santa Rosan tribe (w/Uncle Eric visiting the mainland from Hawaii in tow) for our field trip to Stern Grove & the Los Lobos show,
and IT WAS GREAT!!!
More about all this later, but for now, keep that handshake firm!
7.9.00
Stern Grove, on a Sunday afternoon...
7.8.00
a timely reminder
& of particular interest to Bay Area denizens
SUNDAY, 7/9, LOS LOBOS @ STERN GROVE
here's some suggestions on getting there
and maybe after the show you'll be in the mood for some yummy comida Mexicana,
so head to the Mission and take your pick
& now here's a little taste of the boys rockin' da house
7.7.00
John Harrison & the Longitude Problem
we spotted mention of the A & E broadcast this AM, the story based on the best-seller of a few years back, & here's a little more about Mr. Harrison & problem here.
~ ~ ~
friday follies returns
& we'll try to add a little bit as we go along today, but for now give these a try, some pitifully embarrassing moments to share, & if that hasn't offended you, then these
dead baby jokes should do the trick, from deathsucks.com. Should the mad crush to make Sunday deadline prevent me from making any further post here today,
we'll leave you with this mother of a list
7.6.00
Hiya!, fine foto here,
& we wanted to come back to put a little emphasis on something we missed posting yesterday. Enjoyed the tone despite our immaturity & sophomoric behaviors ...
~ ~ ~
oh, before we forget, the weinermobile, & we gotza thank l a g time (?)
a quickie in the early AM
& we're speaking about a post, altho we'd much rather, uhmmmm, well...
this bit of self-examination from the online Village Voice
.
CONTEST TIME!!!, we loved the old Lowell George Little Feat best of all,
but not adverse to sharing this opportunity re the current incarnation;
harking back to the headlines of a week or so ago,
& from a forementioned online publication, this on the genome business
& this last item as a warning, beware of the Canuck
w/a tip o'the ol' red fez to the gang at IBS
7.5.00
oh & by the way
we've made seeking out the dumbmonkey's fave blogs more an interstellar challenge, but today we recommend Pamie's point of view on titties as well as a visit to the bastion of peace & information to make it easier on you until you have mastered the art of deciphering the blog map
~ ~ ~
dumbmonkey spent part of the weekend
enjoying a new gadget, a DVD player (a cheapo APEX model, primary reason we purchased it was it's feature of playing CDs encoded w/MP3s resulting in MANY hours of enjoyment) and the viewing of two films, "The Limey", which includes very interesting additional material, one item being a 2nd audio track w/Steven Soderburgh & Lem Dobbs commenting (& occasionally disagreeing) on the film. The third audio option included Stamps, Fonda, Warren, Newman & Dallesandro providing background commentary, partly on the film itself, but largely on their individual experiences in the decade of the 60's, both professional & personal. There are times when you can learn TOO much about a film, or the backround behind the making of a film, but this wasn't one of them, and granted, you need to have enough time on your hands to watch it 3 times over (luckily we'd actually seen it in the theatre) but this is one we recommend for those who can enjoy this kind of opportunity. The other film we watched (& also highly recommend) is "The King of Masks" which may be a little harder for some of you to find, but is a marvelously told story that we enjoyed tremendously. Be sure to seek it out,
(oh yah, it's got a monkey in it, too)& if your local video emporium
isn't carrying it,
perhaps they accept customer recommendations.
yessss, the Apex works just fine, we have no complaints
('cept we ended up having to buy a new TV)
perhaps the sole real benefit
to rising as early as we must to catch that damnable bus into the city is the occasional sight of a beautiful morning dawning (altho, realistically, isn't any morning that one is able to awaken to a benefit?) over the S.F. Bay. This morning's ride provided us with a lovely sky of scattered clouds, remnants of last night's fog, with the rising sun illuminating the far off bridge across the Golden Gate, and the city's towers illumined by the dawn light. While passing Yerba Buena Island we glimpsed half a dozen sailboats at anchor in the little cove on the east side of the island, and as we passed thru the tunnel with the great catenary of the bridge cable rising up to the first tower of the suspension span, the great bridge comes again into view, the top of the south tower hidden in the fog, the span resplendent in the morning light, and the view of the city, it's hills, the towers of commerce, bathed in a magnificent light, still a city full of dreams and hopes, no sign of the despair & heartbreak hidden in it's streets.
We hope you all experienced a pleasant holiday, whether you had the interrupted kind or not, along w/wishes for good things coming your way in the remainder of your week.
7.4.00
there's a certain holiday being celebrated today
within the borders of this country, and by many of it's citizens residing elsewhere. The dumbmonkey is not a particularly patriotic, let alone astute, observer of the political scene, but performed his military service when required, albeit questioningly & with some minor blemishes (AWOL for 13 days, investigated for possession of "green vegetable matter" along w/my roomate), and is enough of a cynic to maintain that pose of detached irony amidst the spectacle of fireworks exploding overhead while Sousa blares in the backround. Certainly aware enough of the transgressions of the state to attenuate my feelings of pride in being American and some of that has to do with not being of Anglo-Saxon lineage. We want to avoid sounding more knowledgeable than we actually are, as our stance is largely apolitical, yet aligned emotionally w/the dispossessed & struggling here in the USA as well as around the world, but it's grim, you know,
that particular reality.
So we're including a few posts of related materials that in some way share the theme of Independence, the value of it, the struggle for it, the illusion of it (?). First, in search of a quote many of you are doubtlessly familiar with, we include this page of quotations which happens to include a fine collection of links at the bottom of the page including this one. Keeping in mind that one might be best advised to beware of those trumpeting the cause of Libertarianism & the threat of the State to our "individual freedom", let's introduce this site alongside this list of events discovered on that site. Let's include a bit of Sartre in today's post, just to give you some real meat whilst you munch away on whatever charred flesh you indulge in today. We'll swing this pendulum back in the other direction a little with this link to the Independence Institute, as an informed populace is better able to defend itself (forewarned is forearmed & all that), w/ this brief bit of levity also found at the II site, just 'cause it tickles the latent Texan in the dumbmonkey. Back to the actual event this holiday is intended to memorialize, we introduce this from the Library of Congress, and we'll include this related page, maybe somebuddy's got a homework assignment they need some help on. Here's an eye-opener for some of you not aware of the California Secessionist Movement. We've rambled on long enough, it's time to make sure we don't need to go back to the grocery store, that the beer's on ice & that there's plenty of Red & White wine, that all the blueberries & strawberries have been cleaned for our lovely red white & blue dessert, & hope the fog (locally) stays away long enough tonight that Auntie Edna & Uncle JoJo can enjoy the fireworks, but we are going
to leave you with this last link re the yearning for Independence existing in many places.
Peace...
7.3.00
National Men's Health week
passed us by during the 3rd week of June (we wuz on holiday),
but ran across this interesting item from Men's Health & thought it worth sharing
Alcatraz in the news again, courtesy L.A. Times
~ ~ ~
& there'll be No More Smokin' in the Boys room
R.I.P. Michael Koda
& we'll complete this AM's posts
w/this T. Kawakami piece from the LA Times.
~ ~ ~
Wait a minute! not getting off that easily
if you're stuck at work, in this dull limbo of a day in between the weekend
& the holiday, maybe these items from Equire online will bring a smile to your face...
7.2.00
yessss......
a few minor changes in the workz hereabouts,
please bear with our shenanigans whilst we monkey around with this and that
dude! your page looks naked!
alright, yes it does, so
(because we gotzalotz of other things on our mind presently)
here is a reprise of some of last week's posts....
dreaming of an open road
on this friday Am, especially w/a FULL work week ahead of us (AGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!) next week; inspired initially by this item leading us to seek out some material in the same vein, like this site of open road images, stumbling across these interesting pages along w/ this nod to Walt W. How about the option of a different kind of highway? For the neophyte open road seeker, particularly of the female gender, there's this book. This site refers to a radio show we should like to hear (nice watercolors), and here's another road tale. Seems like a weekend theme to explore & we wonder if there's any open road tales at the fray (we hope!)
damn, we get Tuesday off, but gotzta come back here Monday,
no time for a nice road trip ourowndamnself...
~ ~ ~
WHOA, talk about serendipity...
found this today in the NYT Online:
Route 66: A Journey Across America
wowwee, looks like the NYT might have beat the fray to the punch on sharing tales of the road, check this out
~ ~ ~
that'll do for now, getting all misty eyed & teary reading the "old" dumbmonkey, just way too much stuff to pick & choose from, so IF you looking for more until we catch up with ourselves just peruse some of the last 6 months worth of monkey biz, mon ami...
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