yourstruly's back in the desert southwest... 6.30
for short visit, celebrating a couple of birthdays primarily, keeping internet activity to a minimum as we be dealing with a dial up connection.
from the bright mind of Tom Meyer:
note to ourowndamnedself... 6.25
thou must try harder!
pssssssst...
the weekend approacheth, and on that note: Bam Bam Lives!;
comink vewwy, vewwy soon, to a neighborhood near you, the S.F. Mime Troupe'04 Summer/Fall Season:
for those of you possessing the iron constitution to handle it, C. Taggart provides link to El Blowhard Supremo interviewed in Ireland;
HEY! right back at you, you great waste of space... and the same goes for that dunce-cap wearing, pretzel-choking,
platitude quoting poseur cowboy friend of yours too, Dick.
sheeeeesshhhh, what a class act these imbeciles are...
excellent reason to engage in conviviality... 6.23
unseating the resident & his cad-ministration? Yahhh Babee!
See the movie, then head to the house party... thanks to the shiny blue grasshopper for the heads up...
in our not so humble opinion... 6.22
there be few folks who can manage a weblog with greater finesse than our esteemed comrade S. Baum, wizard behind the curtain at Ethel the Blog. Begin your day with a careful perusal of link provided there directing you to speech by Bill Moyers, as well as the other bits of chunky, linky goodness he provideth thee. Muchas Gracias, Esteban!
mama told me there'd be days like this... 6.20
some days ago yourstruly was in some specifically unrecalled retail outlet, walked by the greeting card section and noticed the large selection of fathers day cards on display, a thought that popped into our grey matter at the moment was well, damn... won't have to buy those any more, eh..., but ohhhhhh man, we misses our Popz so damn much. Happened ourowndarnself was in the company of Bro K & familia on Friday to attend informal retirement picnic celebration for himself & two other coast guard comrades, then spent the day together with them back in Santa Rosa. On our drive back Ken and l'Marquis stopped by little roadhouse and raised a glass to toast the papa-san, acknowledge our mutual grief and our recognition of how he would have loved to know his sons were together & supportive of one another. To all of you Dads out there, we wish you a very good day in
the genuinely heartfelt sense that we'd have offered up the same sentiment to our Popz, Vincenzo. Gimme a moment while we wipes the tears from our eyes...
okay, so things in our personal universe of bloggos favoritos are returning to some semblance of normality, Esteban at Riley Dog posting recently and we hope he made it home from hospital with little tribulation. C.J.'s BookNotes is now available for our perusal once again, thanks to behind the scenes assist from someone managing the buzzword domain, and while l'Marquis doesn't know D.W. & doesn't think he ever wants to know D.W., he knows that spouting this kind of nonsense will provide one way ticket to "Egads! what an asshole this guy is..." territory.
another fine hot cuppa... 6.19
another saturday morning...
so whilst meandering about visting bloggos favoritos, and pausing at Ftrain, his Gallivespians (and how some less evolved part of l'Marquis envys Mr Ford his ascent from mere blogger to NPR raconteur...) and am thinking- Wait A Minute- didn't we read this just last year? yesssss, binky, yourstruly familiar with the His Dark Materials Trilogy, liked it very much and have recommended it often. Will
admit to absolute ignorance of Phillip Pullman & his work until viewing T. Gilliams Lost in La Mancha, in particular Salman Rushdie's interview of Gilliam included on the DVD (once upon a time that interview was available
at the link utilized on that page). It was late in the invertiew where Rushdie inquires of T.G. which books he had read recently that he wished to adapt to film, and Pullman's work was mentioned & it was Gilliams' reasons for admiring this work that inspired our seeking out & reading same. Personal aside here: watching taped Letterman show from last night, Michael Moore on at the moment, if it appears yourstruly a tiny bit distracted, he is... SO, really folks, that series is a compelling read, for any number of reasons, a really wonderful young woman as primary protagonist for one thing, and forgive me for this, but were folks who read Gulliver's Travels in its day the equivalent of the geeks reading something like Amber Spyglass now? Okay, and while we are at it, another moment of blowing our own horn here, related reference to another work of Gilliam's in our August '03
yummy yum yum... 6.17
can you say Fish Tacos?
sure, we knew you could, binky... and a tall glass of iced tea alongside instead of the chardonnay...
hmmmmmmm... a primero, allow us to introduce thee to the wonder that is bzangygroink, whom l'Marquis be tippin' his ol'red fez to for providing this hunk of quality linky goodness, and Hey, we want to know why the wonder that is Plep gets an International Day of Plep, and l'Marquis don't, oooooh we so jealous...
cannot recall how we came across this next item, but we put link aside in order to make mention of it sometime, now's as good a time as any, from the folks at open Democracy, Time & Motion; ourowndamnedself was thinking the other day (and ohhhhh man was it painful...), wishing there was a site where one could see the front pages of newspapers throughout this magnificent democracy of ours (ooooh, infected by something republican there for a moment...) as l'Marquis wondering how many of them carried this news on their front page (NYT here)...
couldn't have happened to nicer guys... 6.16
and in particular we mean Coach Larry Brown and his boss, Joe Dumars. Congrats to them both, to Big Bad Ben Wallace, Rip H., Chauncey, T. Prince, all of those guys in Detroit Pistons uniforms, 'cause they showed us all up, the many of us who had
comfortably assumed the Lake show would take home the trophy in five, maybe six games. Teamwork, defense and unselfish play,
that will ususally do it, and those three things all facets of the game notably lacking in the Lakers' scheme of things these days. Am very happy for Coach Brown, as he has just about done it all in the coaching ranks, often suffering the slings & cheap shots of those critical of his gypsy ways; he was just searching for this opportunity with a group of players who would listen, take his lessons and advice to heart, get in shape, play hard and play well. Bravo! Someone asked how yourstruly imagined ex-Stanfoo coach M. Montgomery is gonna fare at the helm of the Warriors, and, well... he's one hell of a basketball coach but don't expect any miracles there.
l'Marquis was strolling back to the monkeemobile the other morning, after visiting some local businesses in the Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood of Shattuck Ave Berkeley, and whilst passing apartment building heard a woman's voice call "John! John! is that you?", turned and met up with amiga from years past, Miss Lydia, used to run a chinese restaurant in downtown Berkeley during the years yourstruly was managing Palmer's Video. Always nice to run into pals from years past and it likely was more than 6 or 7 years since we had last run into one another. She shepherded ourowndamnself into her office and fixed us
a nice cuppa, proceeded to fill me in on all the life changes that had come her way since leaving the restaurant, getting a divorce, moving to the city, whoa! Good thing yourstuly hadn't an appointment to make and the afternoon free 'cause we didn't
get out of there until a little better than an hour later. Got all the news on the three daughters, one now married and recently giving birth to Lydia's first grandchild, the others out in the world and doing well. Certainly a pleasant surprise and nice to realize that in the wake of our voyage thru the world we'd managed to make positive enough impression on folks that they often would take us aside for moments like this. As far as her own life was concerned, she was very positive, she'd
just begun collecting her social security, had this sideline gig of managing nice 8 unit apartment building in Berkeley (two BR avail now if anyone interested), taking classes, had herself a sweetheart that she'd been involved with for the last couple of years. It's all good, babee, all good...
okay, leaving you with a track from CD we picked up a week or so ago, local gang of musicians, Michael Govea and Los Compas,
still gigging thru-out the Bay Area, largely S.F. & environs, if you googled Michael Govea you'll find webpage with a
schedule handy. Good stuff, binky, certainly will incite lots of tail-feather shaking, apologies for the size of the file and
your likely need of something broadband-ish to enjoy, but enjoy it you will. A little medley of styles/tunes, enjoy!
yum yum yum... 6.14
before
after
+ some miscellaneous leftover linky goodness:
los lobotomys;
from global village idiot, Los Lobos;
some more of the good stuff available at global village idiot; nice review of fine boxed set of Los Lobos
(the 2-disc Just Another Band from East L.A. release on Slash/Warners ain't bad either);
more fine stuff from Rhino Records:
can you say Ray Charles? the word's that Steve be out of hospital soon, send best regards to him via Riley Dog; ourowndarnself's had problems (!) with
the company we renting server space from (d'monkey is a pitas page but all the graphics, pics, mp3z, etc got to be kept
online & available somewhere) so we empathize in a big way with all the folks who woke up one fine day recently to discover
their weblogs summarily yanked off-line (appears some folks have stepped up in effort to provide hosting server & assist to those webloggers summarily yanked off-line by D.W., the old.weblogs.com page heretofore linked here is off & out in the ether someplace, & that's too bad as it gave one a real taste of the grace & consideration (NOT!) of D.W.'s decision) & then not able to get their hands on their own stuff till after July 1. Damn! Hope
C.J. feels it is worth his while to bring back BookNotes, and oh yah, ourself's familiar with feelin' weary 'bout it all, having approached weblogger burnout on a few occasions, well, you know, nothing lasts forever...
we're talking great material for a remake here... 6.13
and we'll get back to that idea in just a moment, allow us first to mention a recent interview w/N. Chomsky available courtesy ZNet. Before we jump into that remake business, let's first mention yourstruly's been listening to
The Ride a fair amount lately,
appreciating it more each time. Bobby Womack guests on the Wicked Rain/Across 110th Street track, and oh my goodness Binky, is that one fine track or what? Hearing Womack's voice brought back a ton of memories, a few about this tune in particular, from our old vid-store employment days, Yaphet Kotto & Tony Quinn in the movie, soundtrack by Womack & J.J. Johnson. Located the DVD, watched it last night, that's when we got the "ohhhhh man, this is a remake waiting to happen..." kind of feeling...
mmmmm-mmmmm, good... 6.11
okay, guess you could call this our "let's talk movies for breakfast" segment. Watched The Company recently, always enjoy seeing what R. Altman has up his sleeve for us, this certainly in the category of light entertainment, you're spending a bit of time with
Chicago's Joffrey Ballet company, with an assortment of backstories interspersed with dance sequences. Reminded yourstruly of
some films by Carlos Saura often referred to as his Flamenco Trilogy, Bodas de Sangre, Carmen, and El Amor Brujo; perhaps Altman's film most resembling the middle film Carmen. Malcolm McDowell & Neve Campbell are
the most recognizable faces in the ensemble and even for those whom, like l'Marquis, ballet & dance remain arts largely outside of one's usual indulgences, the dance segments are wonderfully staged & shot, not a trial to have to sit thru, yet
thanks to the magick of home video/DVD, there's always that FF. If you've not seen the Saura films, ohhhhh, s'pity; yourstruly would recommended opting to see those first and, gosh, we likez 'em all, but suppose if we had to pick one fave
out of those three, it likely be El Amor Brujo, mostly because of the music, one number in particular, where the women in the camp are doing laundry & hanging it out to dry, oh yah binky...
Another of those "damn, why didn't we bring the camera along" moments- mid-morning stroll to pick up the day's papers, drop off discs at local video emporium, double cap in hand on the way home, walking down neighborhood street, bird flies out of the sky and into thickly blooming flowerbed in front of home and this is a big bird so enough noise made it would have been difficult to overlook. so yourstruly pauses for a moment then up pops this raptor, a small hawk of some sort who leaps up to wrought iron railing of stairway in front of house and perches there a moment, peering down into the flower bed
where brekkie seems to have escaped into, hops across the porch to rail on opposite site searching the flowers there while stepping down the rail
to its leading edge then leaping across to the other side again. Yes, definitely some sort of raptor, that hook-beaked countenance, with ourowndamnself amazed & agog at the sight, a mere 8-9 feet away, certainly as aware of l' hulk du Marquis standing there watching as we of it, then up, & off, flying around the corner of the house next door out of sight, amazink...
we could not help but be reminded... 6.10
again yesterday, whilst watching the testimony of el ministero hisowndamnself, of his resemblence to Porky
(of the Our Gang film comedies from WAY back...);
otra cosa mas: for the girl (or guy with penchant for these kinds of things) on your holiday shopping list who has everything, Yarmulkebra
if you've the appetite for it... 6.9
a bit more on Ashcroft & his appearance before that Senate committee yesterday, pero, a primero, something
supplied us by a concerned citizen, Senator Leahy's opening statement:
Mr. Attorney General, welcome. It's been, I believe, about 15 months to pass since your last very brief appearance
in March last year. Your testimony here comes today about 1,000 days after the September 11th attacks, and the
subsequent launch of your efforts against terrorism.
As National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice acknowledged in her testimony before the 9/11 commission, the
terrorist threat to our nation did not begin in September 2001. But the preliminary findings of the 9/11
commission suggest that counterterrorism simply was not a priority of your Justice Department prior to September
11th.
Problems ranged in your department from an understaffed foreign translation program, woefully inadequate
information systems, cultural attitudes that frustrated information sharing across agencies. Just one day before
the attacks, on September 10th, you rejected the FBIs request to include more money for counterterrorism in your
budget proposal.
And while you have recently been critical of the so-called wall between criminal investigators and intelligence
agencies, you did nothing to lower it during your first seven full months in office.
In fact, you put up exactly the same wall in your administration.
The president is fond of saying that September 11th changed everything, as if to wipe out all missteps and
misplaced priorities of the first year of this administration. After the attacks, you promised a stunned nation
that its government would expend every effort and devote all necessary resources to bring the people responsible
for these crimes to justice. Certainly the American people would expect no less.
So a thousand days later and it is time to ask for the fulfillment of the promise you made.
Mr. Attorney General, your statement lists accomplishments of the Department of Justice since 9/11, but you leave
out a number of things.
For example, of course the obvious, Osama bin Laden remains at large.
At least three senior Al Qaida operatives who helped plan the 9/11 attacks are in U.S. custody, but there has been
no attempt to bring them to justice.
The Moussaoui prosecution has bogged down before any trial.
A German court acquitted two 9/11 co-conspirators, in part because the U.S. government and Justice Department and
others refused to provide evidence to them.
Three defendants who you said had knowledge of the 9/11 attacks did not have such knowledge. The department
retracted your statement and then you had to apologize to the court because you violated a gag order in the case.
The man you claimed was about to explode a dirty bomb in the U.S. had no such intention or capability, and because
he's been held for two years without access to counsel, any crimes he did commit might never be prosecuted.
Terrorist attacks on Capitol Hill and elsewhere involving the deadly bioterror agent anthrax have yet to be
solved, and the department is defending itself in a civil rights action brought by a man who you probably
identified as a person of interest in the anthrax investigation.
U.S. citizens with no connection to terrorism have been in prison as material witnesses for chunks of time, and
then, "Oops, I'm sorry," when what the Justice Department announced was a 100 percent positive fingerprint match
turned out to be 100 percent wrong.
Non-citizens with no connection to terrorism have been rounded up seemingly on the basis of their religion or
ethnicity, held for months without charges, and in some cases physically abused.
Interrogation techniques approved by the Department of Justice have led to abuses that have tarnished our nation's
reputation and driven hundreds, if not thousands, of new recruits to our enemies to terrorism.
Your department turned a Canadian citizen over to Syria to be tortured. And then your department deported another
individual to Syria over the objection of experienced prosecutors and agents who thought he was a terrorist and
wanted to prosecute him.
And one of the most amazing things, your department, under your direction, has worked to deny compensation to
American victims of terrorism, including former POWs tortured by Saddam Hussein's regime. You have tried to stop
former POWs tortured by Saddam Hussein -- Americans -- you tried to stop them from getting compensation.
And documents have been classified, unclassified, reclassified, to score political points rather than for
legitimate national security reasons.
Statistics have been manipulated to exaggerate the department's success in fighting terrorism. The threat of
another attack on U.S. soil remains high, although how high depends primarily on who within the administration is
talking.
Mr. Attorney General, you spent much of the past two years increasing secrecy, lessening accountability and
touting the government's intelligence-gathering powers.
The threshold issue, of course, is -- and I believe you would agree with me on this -- what good is having
intelligence if we can't use it intelligently. Identifying suspected terrorist is only a first step. To be safer
we have to follow through.
Instead of declining tough prosecutions, we need to bring the people who are seeking to harm us to justice. That's
how our system works. Instead, your practices seem to be built on secret detentions and overblown press releases.
Our country is made no safer through the self-congratulatory press conferences when we're facing serious security
threats.
The government agency that bears the name of justice has yet to deliver the justice for the victims of the worst
mass murder in this nation's history.
The 9/11 commission is working hard to answer important questions about the attacks and how the vulnerabilities in
our system that allowed them to occur, but it can't mete out justice to those involved. Neither the 9/11
commission nor this committee can do the work of your Department of Justice.
Mr. Attorney General, since September 11th, you blamed former administration officials for intelligence failures
that happened on your watch. You've used a tar brush to attack the patriotism of the Americans who dared to
express legitimate concerns about constitutional freedoms. You refused to acknowledge serious problems, even after
the Justice Department's own inspector general exposed widespread violations of the civil liberties of immigrants
caught up in your post-September 11th dragnets.
Secretary Rumsfeld recently went before the Armed Services Committee to say that he, he Secretary Rumsfeld, should
be held responsible for the abuses of Iraqi prisoners on his watch.
Director Tenet is resigning from the Central Intelligence Agency. Richard Clark went before the 9/11 commission
and began with his admission of the failure that this administration bears for the tragedy that consumed us on
9/11.
And I'm reminded this week, as we mourn the passing of President Reagan, that one of the acts for which he will be
remembered is that he conceded, that while his heart told him that the weapons for hostages and unlawful funding
of insurgent forces in Nicaragua should not have been acts of his administration, his head convinced him that they
were, and he took personal responsibility.
We need checks and balances. As much as gone wrong that you stubbornly refuse to admit. For this democratic
republic to work, we need openness and accountability.
Now, Mr. Attorney General, your style is often to come to attack. You came before this committee shortly after
9/11 to question our patriotism when we sought to conduct a congressional oversight and ask questions.
You went before the 9/11 commission to attack a commissioner by brandishing a conveniently declassified memo and
so unfairly slanted a presentation that President Bush himself disavowed your actions.
So I challenge you today to abandon any such plans for the session. Begin it instead by doing that which you have
yet to do: talk plainly with us and with the American people, about not only what's going right in the war on
terrorism -- and there are those things that are going right -- but also about the growing list of things that are
going wrong, so we can work together to fix them.
Let's get about the business of working together to do our job, a better job of protecting the American people and
making sure that the wrongdoers are brought to justice, are brought to trial and are given the justice that this
country can mete out.
que tal, amigos & amigas...
aqui ahora?, nomas las misma cosa, and, well, no that's not entirely true. More details as the summer
progresseth, but yourstruly's in the midst of shaking off years of accumulated dust & detritus, gonna
be expanding our horizons in the months to come, intending some journeys hither & yon, catching up w/
pals old & new, perhaps getting a handle on where to concentrate our energies in the years to come.
Ran across this NYT item this morning, and recalling another day, oh perhaps 30-some odd years ago (0hhh yah,
we have mentioned our silverback status hereabouts previously...), some late night radio program in
the desert southwest, when we first heard Bobby D's Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, Ms Baez's version, and how entrancing the tune & lyrics were to a young dumbmonkeyfella.
Most of you all stopping by to visit are well aware of our enmity & large dislike of the present cad-ministration,
the moron-in-chief and each and every one of those pri---- ahhhhh... let's not go there, jaypea...
Yah, right, okay, so in between some stuff ourowndamnself involved in around chez d'Monquis we managed to catch that
great waste of space currently at large in the guise of Attorney General and could've sworn we saw steam coming out
of his ears in the course of his testimony to the Judiciary Committee. Oh, l'Marquis is SO weary of this gang of dangerous characters, certainly thankful to those made of tougher stuff than ourdarnedself like Billmon, Daily KOS, & Atrios @ Eschaton just to name a few (each of those folks have plenty of fine links in their respective blogrolls worthy of your perusal). Depending on how things go during our desert sojourn & the related road trips intended during the remainder of this year, you'll still likely see some criticism & mention of our not-thinly-veiled-dislike of the schmucks & putzs (what is the plural of putz anyway?) currently running roughshod in
Washington, but we thinking things may get a good deal more personal, toss in a bit of our occasional forays in speculative
fiction, contemplations upon the complications of the single life,
and man Oh man, is that life ever complicated. Oh sure, that's not to say that the alternative doesn't have its hairy moments as well. For a very good long time now, yourstruly's been convinced that life, that is, couplehood, going steady, exclusive & monogamous partnerships, that kind of thing, wasn't anything we were willing to make the necessary compromises for, and no, let us not imagine anything approaching a great sea change in our way of thinking, s'just that in our adventures as a single guy of late, well, it's been interesting, lads & lasses, to say the least...
later that same day... 6.4
okay, nothing like preaching to the choir, is there, we asking ourowndamnedself. Sure hope some of you pestering those moronic in-laws & co-workers in your life passing along some of these nuggets of righteous goodness, ohhhh but wotdahell, in our currently VERY pessimisitic frame of mind, it's way too late anyway. SO-
last night, PBS on the tube, Frontline program Tax Me If You Can, reminded to mention that to y'all after dropping by Ethelthis morning, oh and if any of us are naive enough to believe our elected representatives are going to get us out of this mess, oh dear, oh my, can you say LOBBYIST? sure, we knew you could. We again take opportunity to point you in direction of site re upcoming film release The Corporation (mentioned hereabouts previously on our 5.25 post...). Uhhhhh, okay now, what else can we depress you with now that the weekend's on the horizon? OH! yah, this will do it for sure. Out of the pages of the local fishwrap S.F. Chronicle's East Bay Life section this morning: When you go out clubbing, the most important thing isn't whether you have a good time or whether you're a good person. What matters is that you look like everybody else while looking better than them. We tell you how. Then they point you to Page 3 and Man Oh Man, did I turn to page three fast or what? Pessimist? you ask why we feelin' so damn pessimistic?
oh Binky, ya don' know the half of it...
otra cosa mas, y me voy, odd co-incidence of the morning:
sitting in the living room, opened the paper to Bay Area
section, latest Los Lobos CD playing, and reading this...
early on a friday morn...
whilst perusing the usual favorities & news sites, we dropped in upon the NYRB and discovered item on recent film we commented upon last month, Daniel Mendelsohn says it so much better than yourstruly... and yessssss, katz und kitteez, there are some big, multisyllabic words, some complex paragraphs and phrases, but please don't let that stop you; gee whiz kids, we can't all write 'em like the guy behind the Da Vinci Code...
and jessferdahalibut, from Poetry Daily, Vectors 2.0: More Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays
la creme de la creme... 6.3
ahora, unos de mis bloggos favoritos, niņos Y niņas :
from environy, something with the fingerprints of stumpy D alloverit, J Stewart's Commencement address; for our money, one of the finest travelogue writers on the planet, the demented cardhouse guy (welcome home, demented cardhouse guy...); you can always rely on the fabulousness that is wood s lot to deliver, and yesterday's package(and we'd link directly there if that permalinky thing was working...) was a doozy; the endlessly edifying Ethel; stopping by riley dog and getting your face licked is a good thing, too.
alright, enuf o'dat... now a couple things from the stash, out of SF Gate/Chronicle, imagine the rush of having the wind fill your kite, you are skimming across the wave tops all the way from the Farallons thru the Golden Gate, to a beach on Crissy Field; these guys did just that; saw this late on Monday night, leaving l'Marquis thinking to himself, alright, end of a holiday weekend and starting at 11:30 Pm, who in the world is watching this?, anyway, maybe you can catch rebroadcast of fine mini-movie, Cosmopolitan (site includes link to short story that inspired its creation); now we are including link re this next item largely because it includes screening dates & locations for this wonderful film. keep in mind we'd recommend that you not read the supplementary synopsis etc, simply take our word for it, as we really believe you will appreciate Twilight Samurai
yourstruly has refrained from any mention... 6.2
of the NBA playoffs, teams involved, any personal prognostications. There may be some opportunity to more fully explore what we have been feeling about the '03-'04 NBA season but for now l'Marquis simply extends congrats & kudos to Coach Brown, Big Bad Ben Wallace, "Rip" Hamilton and that gang that couldn't shoot straight yesterday (oh yah, that was some ugly basketball...), the Detroit Pistons. Once upon a time hereabouts, yourstruly occasionally enjoyed making more noise about our predilection for basketball, how much we enjoy the appearance of March Madness followed by the NBA playoffs but we tempered our inclination to run on about those things, knowing that only a very few of our dedicated dozen readers would seldom if ever even remotely consider themselves hoops fans. Some of you are aware of
our inclination to root for the team wearing Forum Blue & Gold and, man ohhhh man, what a long, strange trip this season has been for the fellas...
okay, so May has come and gone, a month that included l'Marquis coming to terms with decision of remaining in the employ of Hearst Corp./S.F. Chronicle, and dat ol' red fez wearing fool has decided he'd had enough of Classified Advertising and the shenanigans of much of the recently-brought-onboard management team. There are very few things more frustrating than finding oneself in the position of working in an environment where the folks in positions
of responsibility & management of the day to day operations are simply inadequate to the tasks. Where we might have
issues with some of the editorial decisions made by folks on that end of newspaper production, yourstruly really believes that in that regard, at least, there are a good many concerned and hardworking folks trying, really trying hard, to deliver a newspaper worth reading, unlike, unfortunately, the classified advertising team. Enough about that, especially around here, but if anybody wants to offer up lunch & a brew or two, ourowndamnedself would be happy to meet up in the city and cite thee chapter & verse of every idiotic decision made in that department, particularly by the
altogether inadequate individual currently at the helm of the classified call center along with the supervisory staff she has put into place there. After nearly seven years there, not only was the writing on the wall, it had been chiseled out of granite blocks fifty feet high. May did close out with some enjoyable hours spent in the company of many friends and to each and every one of them, l'Marquis' terribly grateful for their company, their support and their willingness to put up with his bad- & mis-behaviors; Merci Boucoup a Euphorbita, Betsey C., Janey & Phillipe, Coach Sara, Brother K alongside others who shall remain nameless...
okay, for now just a couple of juicy items to leave you with. On our initial foray out into the neighborhood seeking caffeination this Am, KPFA on the radio, the program Democracy Now and link to very interesting tale told there; something passed along to us via friend mentioned just a little earlier, SOA Watch Scores Victory in Venezuela (for those of you who imagine that a simple change of administration is going to effect the greater changes we all have to work toward, well, you got a think or two coming...) Ho--kay, for now, that's all folks...
the mighty struggle against terrible odds that became may '04
a primero, allow us to introduce thee to the wonder that is 
okay, so May has come and gone, a month that included l'Marquis coming to terms with decision of remaining in the employ of Hearst Corp./S.F. Chronicle, and dat ol' red fez wearing fool has decided he'd had enough of Classified Advertising and the shenanigans of much of the recently-brought-onboard management team. There are very few things more frustrating than finding oneself in the position of working in an environment where the folks in positions
of responsibility & management of the day to day operations are simply inadequate to the tasks. Where we might have
issues with some of the editorial decisions made by folks on that end of newspaper production, yourstruly really believes that in that regard, at least, there are a good many concerned and hardworking folks trying, really trying hard, to deliver a newspaper worth reading, unlike, unfortunately, the classified advertising team. Enough about that, especially around here, but if anybody wants to offer up lunch & a brew or two, ourowndamnedself would be happy to meet up in the city and cite thee chapter & verse of every idiotic decision made in that department, particularly by the
altogether inadequate individual currently at the helm of the classified call center along with the supervisory staff she has put into place there. After nearly seven years there, not only was the writing on the wall, it had been chiseled out of granite blocks fifty feet high. May did close out with some enjoyable hours spent in the company of many friends and to each and every one of them, l'Marquis' terribly grateful for their company, their support and their willingness to put up with his bad- & mis-behaviors; Merci Boucoup a Euphorbita, Betsey C., Janey & Phillipe, Coach Sara, Brother K alongside others who shall remain nameless... ![[Optimized for PinealWeb]](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tilt/pinealweb/pineal.gif)